It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on grief, terminal illness, the death of a loved one, & others.

Walter’s father has requested a move from Arizona to Montana, he is on his last leg, though once he’s arrived at the cottage-style home nestled in the wilderness he will have lost the use of those too. In a bid to halt time, perhaps refute the passage of hands around an invisible orb, Walter expresses worry at the long-haul journey that his father has endeavoured & recruited to have happened. In the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it is no surprise to see that the roadblocks surmount the transition in place for a passage from this world to the next yet, the patriarch is set & his noon hour has rung.

I had little idea what I was going to find in this short story. Grief is a very personal experience & I am therefore always cautious when endeavouring to read a story wherein the author has presented their honest sentiments regarding the experience of loss. I should never want a review to be taken as insulting, insensitive, crass, or derogatory primarily when dealing with the emotions & experiences of another person. Who am I to say that what transpired in this book is too much or not enough? The answer is that no one is quite as well placed as the author themselves.

What I will say is that this was a very moving story. Kirn has invited the reader to glimpse the transition that will set his life to exploring new horizons; when once he was a son to parents, he now is a child of singularity from a parentage ancestral to the living world. In this short story, Kirn welcomes the transition as a disjointed cube pulsating through a mangled conceived oval; losing a parent is not easy. Ultimately, what is presented does not necessitate the reader to take a stand on whether or not the type of relationship Kirn had with his father mattered or not. Whether or not we have glorious, loving, warm relationships with our parents do not dictate that their deaths will be a seamless transition for us. All change requires something of the last man standing.

The inclusion of metaphors, once experienced in a childhood dream, wanders into the final moments between Walter & his father in something of a fishing line through the fog; hoisting the make-believe world of the misunderstood youthful subconscious into the dreadful world of matured blinded certainty of the adult. The length of this book highlighted how impactful the appearance of the bear was at the beginning of their stay at the cottage as well as adding a tension of desire in the hopes that Walter might recall his past hallucinations of a morphing style from his childhood. The bear is back, you know who he is—ask of him what he wants.

Yet, that is seldom how the world works. Viewing the bear through the video footage reinforces the extraterrestrial experience of the final farewell. Once again highlighting that the relationship mattered not as much as the transition itself. In particular, the final notes of an otherwise blurred series of developed photographs led me to experience a moment’s reprieve for, surely, Walter must have felt that his father was where he had longed to be—returned to the place whence we all came, the earth.

In all, I am appreciative to read so few glimpses into the life of another wherein the communal sentiment, hidden & repressed, washes over the pages in my hands.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, & Walter Kirn for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Kirn packs a lot of emotion into a relatively short piece of non-fiction. He encapsulates his difficult relationship with his father and uses the titular bear as a metaphor. It all works very well.

While I sympathize with the author on the loss of his father, this story, which is supposed to be heartwarming, is hard to follow. It starts with a conversation about moving his father, which is confusing and not very well explained, then the father is moved and just sits around watching TV. It’s nice that they got to spend his last moments together but this didn’t have any moving passages or touching scenes that you would expect of a work like this. And the bear is only in it at the end and mentioned in passing.

A short story, memoir style, on the authors loss of his parent. A deeply painful and moving story that doesn’t shy away from the finality that death is. I think anyone who has dealt with deep grief will relate to this story and their heart strings will be pulled!

A short story, 29 pages, but one that isn’t easily forgotten. This is the story of Walter Kim and his father’s wish to spend his last days in their cabin in Montana.

Rick and Dan were friends with Walter and so the two of them, along with another man ’enlisted for his size and muscle and strength’ rented a Winnebago to drive to Arizona, and transport his father to their cabin in Montana, driving slightly less than 1,400 miles there, and then back again, with Walter meeting them back at the cabin once the drive was finished.

Soon after they were settled in at the cabin, a young ’cinnamon-colored bear…still skinny from its winter fast’ was observed through the window, his father busy with the remote for the tv. He tells his father that there’s a bear in the meadow near the cabin, which gets his attention for just a moment, but only a moment. A noted change in his father, who had wanted this cabin for the proximity to the wildlife.

There is a sense of providence in this, a beautiful story sharing the last day of this man’s life, last moments for a father and son to share the words they’d held back, the words they’d never shared.

A moment of bonding, last words, last hugs, and a lasting memory.


Pub Date: 17 Feb 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Amazon Original Stories

3.5★
“My late mother’s father, a city man, a doctor, took me aside once at Thanksgiving after a dinner of ducks and pheasant and whispered, ‘Your father’s a savage. Don’t be like him.’”

This reads like a family anecdote, a story that has probably been told many times within the family and to friends since it happened.

The author’s father is dying and wants to end his days in his cabin in Montana, near the wilderness and wildlife he loved. Years ago, he’d been a hunter.

“Half of our meals then were of game he’d killed and began with a ritual warning: ‘Don’t bite a pellet.’”

The author reminisces about the years gone by and how his father is no longer a hunter. And of course, he writes about the bear. A real live bear in the house. (Photographic evidence!)

This isn’t a grim, hand-holding story about death, although that’s certainly part of it. I think it’s more the recognition of a parent as an individual, and how they live outside of us and fit into the world in ways we may not be aware of. It’s sometimes a hard thing to get your head around.

On a technical note, if you read on a Kindle with a black and white screen, I recommend using the Kindle app on a device with colour so you can enjoy the photos better.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the preview copy.

This short story, best described as a memoir, tells of the last few weeks of the author's father's life which the two spent together in the father's upscale cabin in Montana. It was very well written although sad to read how quickly ALS stole the father's abilities. A very touching end to the story.

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories via Netgalley for the opportunity to read this short story. All opinions expressed are my own.
Expected Publication: February 17, 2022.

There’s a Bear in the House! is a short (true) story by American author, Walter Kirn and is published under the Amazon Original Stories banner. When Kirn’s elderly father expresses a final wish to spend his last days in his remote Montana cabin, watching wildlife from his porch, three of his father’s friends hire a luxury Winnebago to pluck him from his Tucson Care Facility and deposit him at the cabin.

Kirn spends three weeks tending his father as he rapidly deteriorates with ALS. On the first day, Kirn spots a young, cinnamon-coloured bear out the window, but his father is more interested in his DVD remote, trying to watch his favourite show, “Murder, She Wrote”. After his father dies, with no way of locking the cabin, a friend sets up motion-sensor cameras that alert Kirn to the presence of that same young bear, inside the house. This turns out to not be the disaster it could have been.

Eventually, Kirn scatters his father’s ashes as instructed, later discovering amongst his father’s undeveloped photos something that confirms he chose exactly the right spot. The story includes photos of the bear and a certain relevant tree. The blurb is quite misleading, referring to “a unique and consoling bond” with the bear that is never described in the story. Quirky.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.

This was a beautiful story. It is never easy to lose a parent. Even if you’re not close to them, you grieve. The is such a finality about death. No more chances, that door has finally closed. This book reminded me of all of those feelings but also the beauty of the pain of grief.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was a humorous and enjoyable short story. The pictures added a lot to it and it felt like I was sitting down with the author for storytime.

The title and synopsis of this short story made me think it would be interesting and funny, maybe even poignant. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy a single aspect of this short story. The dialogue was terrible, the story was boring, the prose was clunky. I was surprised to see that it was written by a previously published author who works for the New York Times. I hate being negative, especially for books that Netgalley so generously provided to me in exchange for a review, but I have to honest, and this short story does not get a pass from me.

Walter Kirn's emotional short story examines the relationship between a dying father and his son. Walt is very different from his father, is not close to him, and when his father expresses his wish to die at his remote cabin in Montana, 40 minutes away from his home, he wonders if he is indeed close to death. When his lawyer father arrives from Tucson to the cabin in a Winnebago, it is obvious he is approaching the end of his life, intent on focusing on engaging with his son and grandchildren, nature and watching Murder She Wrote, leaving Walt to address the difficult challenges of looking after him. As his father slips away, a grieving Walt finds solace and consolation in the mystical and transcendent, with a young bear visiting the cabin and in the majesty of a tree. Many thanks to Amazon Original Stories for an ARC.

4 "touching, humorous, memoiric" stars !!

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for an e-copy of this 15 minute read story. I am providing my honest review.

Mr. Kirn is a well respected author and journalist. Here he details the final days he spends with his father in a cabin in Montana prior to his father's demise. Through the last days he recounts his challenges with his dad and despite this provides him with loving care during his last days while attempting to make peace with a man who is very different than him. The story is both pragmatic and spiritual with a distance from the emotions that keep many fathers and sons safe from each other and themselves.

A young bear and a tree provide the kismet and wonder that are inherent in our worlds if we choose to engage and look. Some lovely photographs add poignancy to the story.