Category: Books

How interesting?
Same name of a book used in 3 different genres.

Let’s start with soft-core:
Children’s (babies?) book
Do babies even read? We don’t know. Because they don’t output any understandable sound which we call a language doesn’t mean they can’t read right? Anyhow, this is a kindergarten level book with 20 to 30 pages written by lots of different authors and publishers since the 90’s. Which also has a nursery rhyme dedicated to it.

Moving up:
We have a novel from William Kotzwinkle. You may think to yourself, where have I heard this name before? Let me give you a tip, he is also the author of E.T.

And with a glamorous finish:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan
I know right. Where did that come from? This is a genuine book focused on the Soviet forces and their warfare strategies in Afghanistan.

You can buy 3 of these books and make 3 generations of households happy in single Amazon delivery.

This being said; I’ve read only one of these (for now). Which is the novel by Kotzwinkle.

A short summary would be; A bear steals a manuscript and acts as a human publishing this book, achieves amazing success always being compared to Hemingway, both in literary efforts and look-wise. With success, bear circles into the upper elite and make lots of friends. And while the bear drowns in human level comfort and achievement the original author of the book suffers in the countryside down with depression.

A flowing read that carries you throughout the book. In the middle of the book you may have had enough of unique characters entering into the book which I’ve found exhausting. Characters and their depth were rich however nearly all were for single use only. Not that it upsets me or anything, the timeline bothers me. How? Well the start of the book and development of the story goes nearly day by day, working around a 24 hour time gap. But after the 90% of the book this speeds up and reaches weekly timing. The way I see it Kotzwinkle was having a good time roleplaying with the bear and its interactions. And at a certain point he realized that this is a book, and it should be nearing the end if there isn’t going to be a sequel, which there isn’t.

7/10

Steve Martin created a dream for himself.

And he did it in a great fashion. Most people yearn for the 70’s -80’s-90’s however if you are in the yearning mode for 00’s then this book is your match. Character developments doesn’t go all the way to create depth…because it doesn’t have to.

This is not a book 1 of 8 book series. This your cozy and lighthearted weekend mood setter type of book. And judging from this perspective Steve Martin nails it. The environment and the way it is being portrayed do really take you back to the Beverly Hills of 00’s that you never been to.

Mirabelle’s easy attitude against the challenges of her own eases the reader in.

Ray Porter on the other hand gives you reason why to fight for a 7 digit paycheck and live life with no turbulence.

And the most importantly Jeremy’s evolution from ape to human gives you a clear message “If Jeremy did it, you can do it with ease! “

In general;

Book was 7 out 10.

Movie gets a 6 out 10. Go figure.

I have to highlight this is one of the rare productions where they stayed faithful to the script. Probably because Steve Martin was also playing in it…