Bear Like Me

Cohen, Jonathan. "Bear Like Me", Southern Tier, 2003. Getting Revenge and Finding Love Amos Lassen Peter Mallory has lost his job at "Phag Magazine" and he is out for revenge. A friend of his gives him the idea to write a book about the bear community so he disguises himself as a bear and goes undercover. He lets his body hair grow and starts wearing flannel and he begins to sabotage the magazine however a jealous fellow bear tries to unmask him as Peter gets involved with yet another bear online. Peter had an upscale life until he was fired and could not find another job. When he begins his transformation to a bear, his partner doesn't quite understand and tension arises between the two. At the same time Peter is faced with coming to terms with both his past and his future. Cohen captures the bear subculture and he explains it well. The madcap adventure portrayed here gives a lot of laughs and a lot of truth. It is a bit over the top but it is still fun. What is particularly interesting is that Peter has to come out as a bear after he had already come out as gay and when he meets a new man that he falls for, there is a question if the new guy Dan will accept him when he finds out the background story. Cohen gives us a witty and insightful look at what being a bear is like and he does so with style and with sharp dialogue. I found "Bear Like Me" to be a real treat.

Well, I bought the book because I'm an aquantance of Mr. Cohen. I was looking forward to seeing his quirky and hilarious personality on paper, not to mention his brilliance. I was definatly not let down. Let me go ahead and say, I'm a straight guy, and I loved every bit of this book. I still laugh to myself about some of the great lines. All my female friends keep trying to steal this book from me, especially while I was reading it.... I feel very privalaged to have thanked the auther himself for writing the book, because it was truly a treat, and a nice repreave from the more serious stuff I normally get into and write myself.

My son and I adore this book, sharp, witty and hilarious by turns. I believe that it should appeal to a far wider audience than just the Bear community.

Bear Like Me is an witty and insightful look into the Bear community. The writing is brisk, filled with sharp dialogue and some truly memorable scenes (the protagonist's first venture onto the internet is hillarious).While written with the Bear community in mind, this book should appeal to almost anyone who enjoys good humor. That is, of course, anyone except those with an unnatural fear of furry urban wildlife.

Well... I laughed out loud, I cried (yes really), and I even went 'awwwwww' a number of times, (awwwwwww Ben). This book is certainly unlike anything I've ever read and I learned a lot about myself reading it and in a way I learned little things about the bear community that I never knew, and how to laugh at myself -which I thought I was pretty good at before. Every time things managed to tumble and fall apart for Peter I had to keep reading, I had to know what he was up to, and if he'd manage to right the wrongs that just kept falling in his lap. The characters that Peter runs into are just a riot, funny to laugh at and with, without being too cliche.I give it 5 out of 5 stars because 1) I have no other story to compare it with and 2) because this story opened a lot of personal emotions for me for where I am at in my life, it really touched a nerve in me.The book isn't very big and you'll probably think it's an easy read but I found it so quirky and fun that reading it was a blast and the size didn't matter.I recommened it to anyone looking for some good laughs and a good(very touching) romance between bears. Enjoy