5 minute read
Literary Lives 12
from 11192021 WEEKEND
by tribune242
Engel’s most famous and controversial novel was Bear (1976), a tale of erotic love between a librarian and a bear. Her first editor at Harcourt Brace rejected the manuscript, noting that:
The novel was eventually published by McClelland and Stewart after being championed by the author Robertson Davies. It won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction in 1976. It was Engel’s fifth novel, and is her most famous. The story of a lonely librarian in northern Ontario who enters into a relationship with a bear.
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Engel wrote her novel during an uncomfortable, busy and tumultuous time in her life. In 1973, she had started the Writers’ Union of Canada in her home in Toronto, and was elected as its first Chairperson. She was raising twin children and going through a painful divorce. At the time she was undergoing regular psychotherapy sessions and worried about her mental health.
She started writing hoping to contribute to a collection of erotic work by other serious writers which, because of lack of funding, did not make it to publication. Initially she only had a 31-page draft but, in time, she developed it into the 141page novel. Part of the inspiration for the book was derived from the First Nations legend The Bear Princess, as recorded by folklorist Marius Barbeau. The story was then suggested to the writer by the Haida artist Bill Reid. Early titles for the book included The Bear of Pennarth and The Dog of Gods.
Although initially rejected by Harcourt Brace, fellow Canadian author Robertson Davies praised the book to McClelland and Stewart editors, and Engel started a lifelong friendship with company president Jack McClelland. The first printing was released in Toronto in May 1976.
Marian Engel’s classic book Bear takes place in the district of Algoma in northeastern Ontario. It is a heavily wooded area with a natural mix of deciduous and conifer forests. This part of the Canadian Shield is a district that has many lakes and rivers.
Almost all of Engel’s story takes place in or around an old, octagonal house on a small island – Cary’s Island – on a remote lake – north of Highway 17, past Fisher’s Falls near the Northern Ontario village of Brady.
The octagonal house and island estate which previously belonged to the Cary family is called “Pennarth” (the Welsh Gaelic work for “Bear’s Head”). As the author explains, the octagonal house was inspired by the writings of Orson Squire Fowler and probably dates back to the 1850s. The orderly, and intricately decorated house contains an extensive library of nineteenth century books. Behind the house are several smaller buildings, including one shed that is the lair of a large, semi-tame bear.
The novel revolves around the 27-year-old librarian Lou, who has been given the job of documenting the entire library and contents of the house which has been donated to her employer – the Heritage Institute. Withdrawing from a humdrum and monotonous life in Toronto, Lou savours the opportunity to work in the isolation of Cary’s Island. She studies and catalogues the great library and becomes deeply involved with her work. Slowly and carefully, she begins to approach the island’s resident bear, who was a pet of the late Colonel.
Lonely and detached, she begins an intermittent sexual relationship with the estate’s caretaker, Homer Campbell. She also, aided by an elderly First Nations woman, gains the confidence of the bear.
‘Bear’ was released to acclaim and controversy in 1976
“It gave her a strange peace to sit beside him. It was if the bear, like the books, knew generations of secrets, but he had no need to reveal them.”
She delves deeper into the library and discovers scraps of bear folklore and studies collected by the Colonel, which inspire her spiritually.
As Lou approaches the end of her contractual work with the Heritage Institute the bear follows her to the riverbank.
“It was the night of the falling stars ... They swam in the still black water. They did not play. They were serious that night. They swam in circles around each other very solemnly. Then they went to the shore, and instead of shaking himself on her, he lay beside her and licked the water from her body.”
- Marian Engel Bear
Her bond with the bear is altered, and Lou leaves the island with a sense of renewal.
The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that the book has been called “the most controversial novel ever written in Canada, and the notoriety around its subject matter brought Engel to national attention for the first time. Engel’s writing craft was admired, The Globe and Mail noting her “fine use of understatement, control and economy”. The book was received favourably outside of Canada as well; the Times Literary Supplement in London wrote a positive review. The 1976 Governor General’s Literary Award Jury, which included authors Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, and Mordecai Richler awarded Bear its English-language Fiction Award, one of the highest literary prizes in the country.
Marian Engel’s future writing illustrated contemporary life with a focus on the day to day experiences of women. She described her work as an exploration of “how to deal with an imperfect world when you have been brought up to look for perfection”. Doubled identities were commonly used to illustrate the challenge of traditional gender roles and the imagined possibility of the “other”.
Engel went on to publish five other books: My Name is Odessa Yarker (1977); The Glassy Seas (1979); Lunatic Villas (1981); and The Tattooed Woman (1985).
She died in Toronto of cancer on February 16, 1985. Elizabeth and the Golden City, the novel Engel was working on at the time of her death, was left unfinished. It was incorporated into Marian and the Major: Engel’s Elizabeth and the Golden City by Chrystyl Verduyn and published in 2010.
