There's a Bear in the House! - Walter Kirn - ★★★

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AUTHOR: Walter Kirn
GENRE: Short true-life narrative.
RATING: 3 stars.

Short review, coz I really don’t have much to say about this.

I picked this up only for the title. Didn’t realise that it was a true story based on the last wish of the author’s terminally ill father.

The initial part is quite moving, where senior Kirn insists that he wants to spend his final days in a remote Montana cabin. The bear makes an appearance only for a brief time, and because the title is such a spoiler, any element of surprise about encountering a bear is ruined. The covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown also play a role in this mini-memoir.

I liked the emotional elements about grief and loss much more than the bear encounter. The pain of watching a loved one close to death while being unable to do anything comes out strongly.

The use of actual photographs, including one with the bear, adds to the impact. Better if you check out the photos on a colour screen device because on the kindle e-reader, they look boring.

A onetime read for me. Might have worked better had I known in advance that I was reading a true-life narrative and not a fictional story about a bear. It wouldn’t have seemed so disjointed then! My fault for jumping at the work on reading just the title and nothing else.

This standalone anecdotal narrative is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

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