This was a very unique and interesting book! It was a great read for adults! In the future I hope to see more from this author!

From the inside

Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions, $16.95).

Yoko Tawada, a Japanese-German author, gets inside the furry bodies of our fuzzy friends in a three-part novel, Memoirs of a Polar Bear—and it’s not exactly a Coca-Cola commercial.

The ursine clan’s unnamed forebear writes a memoir of life as a circus bear: She is defrauded by a sea lion and immigrates to Canada. Her daughter, Tosca, narrates the life of her trainer, as if the trainer’s life was more worthy of the telling than her own.

Finally, Tosca bears Knut—yes, the famous German polar bear—and his tale revolves around his surrogate parent, the human Matthias, and his ownrole as the representative of a vanishing species.

It’s an inventive contemporary fable that takes us where we wish we could go—but can’t. Even the polar bears won’t be able to go there for much longer.

Something didn't work with this book and I'm not sure if it has to do with the writing itself or the translation. Japanese fiction in itself can get a little odd so I'm not sure what the deal is. I could see where the stories were going, but they never seemed to get to where they wanted to go. And while the translation had some gems in it, the overall stories just didn't work. I wanted to like this book more than I did.

It's basically 3 short stories following 3 different generations of a polar bear family. Each story is a commentary on a different aspect of society. I did enjoy the 3rd story the most.

2.49 stars, I can't get myself to give it 3 stars but it's better than 2 stars. Perhaps it's better in it's original Japanese. I should give a copy to my dad and get his opinion.