the two sisters who saw the bear

Stories quickly become distorted as they pass from one person’s mouth to another’s ear. It is this process that the expression describes “the man who saw the man who saw the bear”. The two almost thirty-year-old sisters at the heart of the second novel by the American Julia Phillips, 37, have both seen with their own eyes, and on several occasions, the plantigrade which prowls on the island of San Juan, in Washington State. However, their respective versions could not be more different – ​​hence, undoubtedly, the split title chosen for this French version, The Bear! The bear! ; the original is less intriguing: Bear.

In the eyes of Samantha, the youngest, the one with whom the third-person narration is closest, the animal that runs around their house is a danger, a pest. And one more torment in a life which knows more than necessary, between the terminal cancer of their mother, made ill by the solvents of the products applied in the beauty salon where she worked, and the accumulation of bills and unpaid bills. . For two years, the Covid-19 pandemic deprived Sam of her job as a waitress on board the ferries which travel back and forth between the continent and her native island, popular with wealthy tourists. As the traffic has resumed, she continues the services, dreaming of the day when, after the death of her mother, she will be able to leave San Juan permanently with her sister. Only this fantasy makes everyday life more or less bearable for him.

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