I first came across this book in Woodstock, NY, during the summer of 2021. After climbing two peaks of the Adirondack Mountains that morning, my friend and I enjoyed a well-earned afternoon of traipsing window shops and indulging ourselves. One of the shops we entered was the Golden Notebook, a lovely bookshop that is much bigger on the outside than you might imagine. I was the first to comment on the book’s gorgeous cover, a great bear shrouded in golden orange. It was Phoebe who then vocalized her decision to buy On Being a Bear first, and I emphatically encouraged her in the hopes I could borrow the title at some point. Phoebe visited me for New Year’s Eve, and she brought the book with her. She gifted it to me, saying she still had yet to read it and thought I might prioritize it sooner than she would. Lo and behold, I read it within the month of receiving it! And I am so glad I did.

Rémy Marion is a French writer, photographer, and documentary filmmaker with over 25 years of experience observing and learning from bears all across the globe. My copy of On Being a Bear is the English translation of its original French, and yet I was pleased to discover how often Marion infused French history, philosophers, and language into his discussion of bears. It reminded me that I am not merely getting an American perspective on this “Lord of the Woods,” or as shepherds in the French Pyrenees used to call the bear: le va-nu-pieds, “the barefoot man” (pg. 16). I am always impressed and appreciative when experts like Marion find ways to explain complex, highly specialized concepts in a digestible, conversational tone. I was learning about these creatures even as Marion’s ode to them swept me away with stories of folklore and histories reaching back hundreds of thousands of years.

Marion is honest in his accounts of the gruesome history between bears and humans. He neither sugarcoats the dangers of these wild predators nor shies away from blaming humans for the many atrocities done to bears. These atrocities date back thousands of years, but they are also very current. I was disgusted and ashamed when Marion reminded me that my own government, led my the Trump administration in 2017, allowed for the hunting of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park. And I was not surprised that the permission was revoked just a year later, clearly a mistake that should have never been made in the first place. As grateful as I am to become aware of bears as a geopolitical symbol of modern times, I always feel quite emotionally drained after the experience, and I have doubts about what impact I can do as an individual. With that said, this book has hope and inspiration woven throughout its pages, and it is one I will never stop recommending to those willing to listen and open their hearts to lou pé des caous, the man of the mountain.