by Rafi Zabor
First published 2014
The Bear shuffles through city streets with a chain in his nose, performing for crowds while his partner wrestles him for entertainment. But this Bear dreams of something greater. He plays alto saxophone and quotes Shakespeare, his soul belonging entirely to jazz rather than street theater. One night he escapes to a jazz club and sits in on a jam session. A Village Voice review launches his career. The Bear starts playing venues around town and meeting legendary jazz musicians. He records a live album, survives a police raid and jailbreak, then embarks on a cross-country tour that brings him fame. Along the way, he falls in love with a human woman, confronting the ultimate impossibility. This Bear lives as a full character who suffers and loves deeply. The interspecies romance shocks with its tender eroticism. Zabor captures the world of improvisational jazz with authentic detail, drawing on his background as a jazz journalist and drummer. The story works as both a coming-of-age fable about an artist and a sharp satire of the music business.
Genres: art, animals, american-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, adult-fiction, 21st-century, anthropomorphic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water, interspecies-romance
Setting: Village Voice, New York
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
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