Sydney Smith is a freerunner - you know, one of those people who jump about between buildings and off walls, running, jumping, tumbling, somersaulting. She has a successful career as a cartoonist, a long-term relationship with her partner Ruth, but It's only when free-running, eyeing up the next move, estimating a gap or drop, that she truly feels at peace.
She's currently working on a graphic novel of her life, but she's reached a sticking point as she's forced to confront the disaster which scarred her family forever, so on her forty-seventh birthday she returns to St Ives, scene of many happy childhood holidays and one dreadful event, to see if she can face down the past, the same way she would an awkward leap.
In St Ives, Maria is suffering in an unhappy marriage which she can't bring herself to leave, and her 29 year old daughter seems stuck in limbo, not wanting to leave home or assume adult responsibilities.
The two families' lives have crossed before, without them realising; now Sydney, preparing to jump off a roof while Maria watches, is going to bring them together again.
Do Not Feed the Bear is a story of grief, denial and, ultimately, redemption. When we meet them, almost all the characters are living their lives 'on hold', trapped by the past, and unable to commit to the future. A chance meeting sets in motion separate trains of thought which lead them, individually and collectively, to accept that the past is indeed the past, and that the future is what matters now.
It's a compelling read, heart-warming and uplifting, but, at the risk of sounding like a Grinch-style cynic, the ending just seemed a little too neat and rounded off for me.
Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction
She's currently working on a graphic novel of her life, but she's reached a sticking point as she's forced to confront the disaster which scarred her family forever, so on her forty-seventh birthday she returns to St Ives, scene of many happy childhood holidays and one dreadful event, to see if she can face down the past, the same way she would an awkward leap.
In St Ives, Maria is suffering in an unhappy marriage which she can't bring herself to leave, and her 29 year old daughter seems stuck in limbo, not wanting to leave home or assume adult responsibilities.
The two families' lives have crossed before, without them realising; now Sydney, preparing to jump off a roof while Maria watches, is going to bring them together again.
Do Not Feed the Bear is a story of grief, denial and, ultimately, redemption. When we meet them, almost all the characters are living their lives 'on hold', trapped by the past, and unable to commit to the future. A chance meeting sets in motion separate trains of thought which lead them, individually and collectively, to accept that the past is indeed the past, and that the future is what matters now.
It's a compelling read, heart-warming and uplifting, but, at the risk of sounding like a Grinch-style cynic, the ending just seemed a little too neat and rounded off for me.
Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction
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