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I was expecting Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada to be quirky. From my expectation of quirky flowed the idea that it would be lighthearted yet serious. Wow, I was wrong. It is neither lighthearted nor quirky. But that is not a bad thing at all.
The book should more rightly be called memoirs of polar bears, because it is told by three different bears. We begin with mama bear, who does not have a name. She is retired from performing at a circus in East Germany and given a desk job. It seems that mama bear can talk to humans and they can talk to her and everyone understands each other perfectly. Mama bear begins writing her memoirs and it is a huge success. But the publisher takes advantage of her and pays her almost nothing and when she protests, he stops publishing her work. Some people in Berlin help her defect. She continues to write but begins to realize she is still being used but in a different way. So she emigrates to Canada. There she has a baby.
The baby is named Tosca and she takes up the next part of the story. Tosca moves to Berlin, perhaps to escape the fame of her mother. She is known for dancing but she is discriminated against for a part in a big show because she is not small and delicate. Tosca is invited by a Berlin circus to be their feature act. She agrees and begins working with Barbara, an animal trainer, to put together an act.
Unlike mama bear, Tosca doesn’t seem to be able to talk to everyone. However, she and Barbara talk to each other in dream-like moments in which they sometimes meld together. As they put together the show Barbara spends more and more time with Tosca. Barbara’s husband accuses her of having an affair with another man at the circus. But the affair is really with Tosca. They become famous for the act they perform — a tango that ends with and open mouth “kiss.” The kiss involves Tosca taking a sugar cube with her tongue from Barbara’s mouth.
Eventually Tosca retires from the circus and has a baby with Lars, a polar bear at a Berlin zoo. But Tosca is writing her memoirs and leaves baby Knut with a different zoo in Berlin because she finds that having a child interferes with her writing.
The third part of the book is told by Knut. Knut is raised by the human Matthias who provides all the love and care a mother would. Knut even comes to see Matthias as his mother:
Matthias was a true mammal, far more so than many of his sort, because he gave me suck: he fed me not only milk but part of his own life. He was the pride of all mammals.
Matthias wasn’t even a distant relative…The wolf was proud of the fact that the members of his family looked as alike as photocopies. But I revere Matthias for having suckled and cared for a creatures like me who was not at all similar to him. The wolf devoted himself only to the expansion of his own family. Matthias, on the other hand, gazed into the distance, all the way to the North Pole.
Isn’t that marvelous? It gives you an idea of what the book is really about — what does it mean to be human? What is an animal? Can we overcome the barriers? Are there barriers? As you can imagine, many of the humans are more animal-like than the animals and the polar bears are very human. Memoirs of a Polar Bear turns out to be a thought-provoking story not just about humans and animals but also about difference, about the “other” and how we relate to someone who is not, like the wolf is so proud of, photocopies of ourselves. I am glad this book turned out to be different than I expected.
Someone I’m friends with on Goodreads added this to his to-read shelf and I read the book description and couldn’t begin to guess whether I would like it or not – I think that I also may have had the same misconception of it being quirky that you did. Your description of it, though, makes me think that I should check it out at some point!
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Heather, it’s a good book but it took a bit of work at the beginning to get past my expectations. Once I did though, I really enjoyed it.
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This is so very interesting and so very different! So very human and yet not quite man like either! Adding to TBR!
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cirtnecce, it is very different to have a book like that isn’t warm and fuzzy or silly quirky or ironic. I liked that about it. I hope you enjoy it if you get the chance to read it!
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Very interesting ideed! Great idea for a book! Thanks for the great post!
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Dacian, thanks! If you ever read it I hope you like it!
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Added to my list.
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Thanks for this one–I wonder if I would have ever heard of it otherwise!
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jenclair, it got a little buzz but hasn’t had as much attention as I would have expected. It seems especially relevant given all the immigrant and refugee issues going on in this country and Europe right now.
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Sounds interesting. I felt a bit dubious about a bear that is writing a memoir- a bit too humanistic for my taste- but the piece you quote sounds lovely. I’m adding this one to my growing list, thanks.
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Jeane, it is kind of weird about the bears writing memoirs, especially the mama bear who pretty much acts like a human. But if you can suspend you disbelief, it all works really well in the context of the story.
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I like this book. Tawada is interesting anyway with her exophonic talent (she writes in German and Japanese) and I really like the voices she gives these bears.
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wanderwolf, yes, I imagine Tawada’s personal experience is meshed into the book. Did you by chance read the book in German?
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Yes. Yes I did 🙂
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Awesome! I always wonder how translations compare to the original.I wonder if she has a different style when she writes in German than when she writes in Japanese?
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Well, her style comes across more naturally in German. And one gets the dialects of the different bears more clearly.
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The bears have dialects? That does not come across at all in English. Now I feel like I really missed out!
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Brush up your German!
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LOL 😀
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Hmm, Stefanie. It still sound quirky, just not our usual connotation of quirky. Very broadly, it reminds me of a wild-child novel I read and reviewed a few years ago – Dog Boy by Eva Hornung. It’s a very different story – a more traditional wild child raised by a dog sort of story – but a major theme is very much about “what is human”. A memorable read.
Oh and I did love – sort of – Tosc who ” is writing her memoirs and leaves baby Knut with a different zoo in Berlin because she finds that having a child interferes with her writing.” I may not approve in real life, but in a story I love it – and isn’t that partly what fiction is all about?
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whisperinggums, hmm, yes, quirky in the sense of the unusual. I have a little recollection of you writing about Dog Boy.
Heh, I liked that too. And I liked that Tosca wasn’t judged to be bad because of it. Even Knut wasn’t angry about being “abandoned” so it was a nice, subtle bit. Knut was more upset by the zoo his father was in trying to get custody. I’m not certain is Towada was trying to say anything about family dynamics but there is definitely some food for thought in all of it.
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This sounds really interesting–sort of fairy tale-ish. Is it a graphic novel (why should an animal story by told in graphic novel format??). Maybe it is the cover illustration. I always think I won’t like a story told from the perspective of an animal but am so often surprised by books!
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Danielle, nope, not a graphic novel, a plain old regular book of fiction. Stories told by animals are great 🙂
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I’m glad you liked this book. I want everybody to like it. This novel is chockfull of stuff! It’s really stayed with me and I hope it gets a wider audience. I’m busy looking up what else Tawada has written.
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Isabella, it was great and I read it because of your posts about it so thanks! It is definitely chockfull and I feel like there was lots I missed. If I only had time to reread!
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i just signed up for your blog. i’m an avid reader who has moved to Ecuador and have no bookstores to frequent or libraries to borrow from. i will live vicariously through your reviews! of course i can download books for kindle…will see what looks good. thanks for your inviting blog site. look forward to good reading. Lightheaded: Retiring at 8300 feet
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Hi Nancy! Thanks for stopping by! Wow, moving to Ecuador! That sounds exciting in spite of there being no bookstores or libraries for you. You’ll be making stories of your own! 🙂
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