The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro

Away from Her.

I still haven’t fully jumped on the Alice Munro bandwagon and maybe that will come with more reading but The Bear Came Over the Mountain is an undeniably rich and absorbing story. It’s a slow burn, all-encompassing, packed with intimate, lived-in details that end up sketching an entire marriage and, really, a lifetime.

Fiona and Grant have been together for decades, settled into the routines of long partnership, when Fiona’s Alzheimer’s forces her into a care facility. From there, Grant’s carefully ordered life begins to unravel. One of the highlights here is the way Munro explores memories, not just Fiona’s gradual loss of it, but Grant’s selective relationship to his own past. As Fiona drifts in and out of recognition, Grant is left alone with the memories he would rather not revisit.

Grant’s character arc is one of the story’s greatest strengths. He presents himself as dutiful and devoted, but Munro slowly exposes the cracks beneath that surface, particularly his long history of infidelity. When Fiona, barely recognizing him, asks if he will ever leave her and he responds with a firm “Not a chance,” the moment lands with deliberate ambiguity. Is this pure devotion? Or is it guilt finally catching up with him? Munro never lets us off the hook with a clear answer, which makes for a memorable ending. There is irony in the way Grant seems able (almost subconsciously) to forget his adulterous past while Fiona's memories are fading through no choice of her own. Munro examines Alzheimer’s as both an illness and a lens for examining love, loyalty, and self-deception. 

As a short-story, it is on the longer side but never drags while remaining relatively engrossing throughout. The film adaptation directed by Sarah Polley and starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, is also excellent. I might even prefer it to the original source material. Overall, this was a solid, thoughtful read, even if I’m still waiting for the Munro story that completely knocks it out of the park.