Book Review: How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron

It’s been awhile since I read Canadian author Claire Cameron. I last read and reviewed one of her books of fiction, The Last Neanderthal in 2019 and I recently picked up her memoir How to Survive a Bear Attack with an open mind because it’s a work of non-fiction, so very different from what I was used to. This latest book is about the skin cancer that runs in her family, plus a deadly bear attack she became fixated on as she grew older. It may seem like a random selection of topics, but both of course, deal with life and death situations.

Book Summary

Claire’s father dies of skin cancer when she is only nine years old. She continues on with her life, finding solace in nature; hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, tree-planting, eventually meeting a man who loves the same things, and having two boys together. She is diagnosed with the same skin cancer when she is in her early forties, and undergoes significant surgery to have spots on her body removed. As she recovers, she revisits a piece of history from the beloved Algonquin Park area that she used to spend so much time in; in 1991, a couple was killed and partially eaten by a black bear at their island campsite. This kind of attack is extremely rare with black bears, as grizzlies are much more likely to attack humans. Once she’s able to move her body easily enough, she makes her way back to the area (now decades after this attack) to research what actually happened that fateful night, interviewing park staff, friends and family of the victims. She even goes so far as to stay overnight at the same campsite, at the same time of year so she can ‘see’ what the couple saw that last night they were alive. Her personal experience is juxtaposed by a creative retelling of how she imagines the last few months of that bear’s life: his attempts to consume enough food to take him through his winter hibernation and his motivations for why he attacked and killed the couple.

My Thoughts

A work of creative non-fiction, Cameron keeps readers engaged by flipping between these two very different narratives. Her story of losing her father to cancer, and then being diagnosed with the exact same kind is heartbreaking, especially when she recounts how she relates this news to her husband and kids. But then her imagined bear narrative is so different – in actuality, it’s a very unique way of communicating a set of dry, science-based facts about the species. The book is extremely well researched, but it never feels like a slog to learn about these things; instead we are told two different stories. These narratives never really intersect until we reach that island again. Cameron also re-imagines the last few hours of the couple, which humanizes them in a way that surprised me. She admits to falling into the same trap many of us do when we hear about an unexpected tragedy – we sift through the actions of the victims, searching for mistakes they made to reassure us we wouldn’t do the same. But what if they didn’t make any mistakes, and the attack was just random? This is what she explores through her own investigations, and the imagined last year of the bear’s life.

Another subtle yet still tragic loss in this book is Cameron’s ability to enjoy the activities she grew up doing. With her new diagnosis comes an even worse prescription; limiting her sun exposure to basically zero. Having loved the outdoors all her life, she must suddenly re-learn how to be outside safely. Her desire and commitment to enjoying the outdoors is commendable, and she goes out of her way to still be outside safely, including going for runs the hour before sunset, and waking up early as the sun rises to get hikes in. Modern technology makes this easier as she downloads a UV light app to help track how much exposure she’s getting, but her days of enjoying a full day of sun are now behind her.

I honestly believe that only a fiction writer could have written a book this deep and thought-provoking about a bear attack, almost a true-crime narrative, without the lurid feelings. Towards the end of the book she summarizes its impact:

“As a writer, I combined these stories from experts with interviews, photos, and my own reading. When I took them together, I remembered why I write fiction. The best stories may be old, but they are never static. They change and adapt to fit the context they are told in. A story can’t change what happened in the past, but it can offer comfort, guidance, or solace to those who are still alive. Thought this story, I found my voice again” (p. 240, How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron, ARC Edition).

I’m posting this review a few days before the book is released to the public (I’m rarely this organized!), but for those considering picking it up, I highly recommend it. You’ll be surprised how much you learn about bear behaviour, and although it can’t guarantee you’ll survive a bear attack, it will most certainly improve your chances.