Bear: Julia Phillips’ Post-Pandemic Tale of Economic Hardship and Fantasy

With her second novel Bear, Julia Phillips consolidates her position as a leading novelist of the cartographic margins.

Her first novel Disappearing Earth, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 best books of 2019, was set in Russia’s remote Kamchatka Peninsula. Her second takes readers to the remote San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Bear is a post-pandemic novel with a fairy tale twist. The story centers on Sam, who at 29 finds her dreams stalled. She lives with her older sister Elena, caring for their incapacitated mother, a former nail technician suffering from terminal lung cancer due to overexposure to solvents.

Sam earns a meager income serving confectionery on the San Juan ferry, a drop in the ocean compared to their bills. Dependent on Elena’s wages as a bartender, the family struggles to make ends meet.

Sam resents the ultra-wealthy ecotourists who treat the island as their playground and its inhabitants as disposable staff. For Sam, life is relentless; marked by precarious labor, high medical bills, and mortgage payments.

Though they live in a stunning environment, Sam feels alienated, burdened by memories of being targeted for her family’s poverty by wealthy peers in high school. She isolates herself, avoiding both friendship and romance, focusing instead on plans to leave the island after their mother’s death.

These tensions escalate with the arrival of an unexpected, mystical guest: a grizzly bear. While black bears are sometimes spotted, the appearance of a grizzly is unprecedented. Its arrival symbolizes more than just physical danger; it embodies the forces threatening to pull the sisters apart.

The bear’s presence pushes Sam and Elena into interpreting it symbolically, reading it as a fairy tale character from the Brothers Grimm. To Elena, it represents magic and a miracle, a stark contrast to an abusive stepfather.

“What’s going on here is not dangerous,” she reasons, “It’s magical. It’s the best thing that has ever happened to us.”

In contrast, Sam sees the bear as a symbol of chaos, danger, and instability, driving a wedge between herself and Elena.

Elena’s bond with the bear reveals that she isn’t as eager to leave the island as Sam. Her secret boyfriend and new relationships reflect her desire to stay, further intensifying Sam’s feelings of betrayal and insecurity.

Sam and Elena navigate the duality of the bear: as a real, powerful creature and a metaphor for their struggles. Their fixation with fairy tales brings added layers to their story, especially with references to Snow White and Rose Red.

Madeline Pettit, a State Department biologist, is initially perceived as a villain by the sisters. She warns them about the bear, but they resent her intrusion, perceiving it as a threat to their bond.

The story’s antagonist shifts in focus, representing broader societal issues. The novel depicts a world where economic pressures fracture family dynamics and create a fragile relationship with nature. Capitalism is portrayed as the ultimate villain, driving wedges between people and their environments.

Sam can’t grieve or care for her mother properly without financial repercussions. Her mother’s unpaid bills threaten to bankrupt the family, and the bank’s intent to repossess their house looms large.

The bear’s extraordinary appearance contrasts starkly with the mundane struggles of working-class life. In their desperation, Elena embraces the bear’s symbolic magic, but Sam remains doubtful.

The novel’s climax reveals that Madeline’s warnings were rooted in practical considerations: climate change, overfishing, and pandemic disruptions have altered the bear’s natural patterns. The true villain isn’t the bear, nor the scientist or the stepfather, but the exploitative economic system.

Through Bear, Phillips highlights the pressures faced by ordinary people under late capitalism, as they cope with poverty, loss, and the disconnection between humans and nature. Despite its tragic conclusion, the novel underscores that the true antagonist is an economic system that divides people and exploits their realities.

Source: Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times Book Review