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April 2006
Bear Daughter by Judith Berman
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a professional writer and weaver. Her nonfiction book Weaving a Woman's Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom will be released in April. She writes book reviews for Foreword Magazine, and articles for Faery Magazine and Crafts Business Magazine. She teaches creativity, writing, and dreamwork. A dream inspired her fantasy novel, The Shadow Weaver, loosely structured on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE PLOT. Within the framework of the mythic and archetypal, anthropologist and author Judith Berman creates Bear Daughter, the magical story of Cloud, a young woman who wakes at age twelve to discover she is no longer a bear but human. Obviously no ordinary mortal, Cloud is the daughter of the legendary and powerful Lord Stink, one of the immortal First People of the north Pacific coast, and of Thrush, a mortal woman. Thrush married the mortal winter king, Rumble, after he rescued Thrush from Lord Stink, killing him and their three bear sons, and binding their ghosts. In the binding, a hole was torn in the mortal world; Rumble, still feeding on the bound energy of the ghosts, becomes ever more power hungry. He sees Cloud's transformation from bear to human as a threat to his power. Cloud wants only to find a place with her human family, and tries to ignore her dreams of her father and brothers crying to her for help and for release. Haunted, she begins to seek answers about her father and brothers, and about her mother's own powerlessness to claim her. As she learns more and more of her humanity and her history, Rumble sends his wizard, Bone, to eliminate Cloud, thus catapulting her into the journey she did not want to make: to rescue and release her brothers' and father's ghosts, and to discover her own power. In her flight across land and sea, between mortal and immortal worlds, she encounters many of the First People--the orcas, the Bright Ones (the salmon people), and the prince of heaven--while fighting off the spirit servants of Rumble's wizard. Bear Daughter is more than a coming of age story, as it reflects not only the mythic but the psychological and shamanic dimensions as well. The shaman is one who dreams, who travels between the land of the living and the dead, and who is able to heal by working with the unseen. Cloud does all this as she struggles to accept and own the power of her mask, her bear self. Once she dons her bear mask, she sees with clarity and is able to find the way to release the ghosts of her brothers and father. She is able to shift from human to bear and back again at her will. Cloud's struggle to acknowledge the dark or shadow side of herself echoes every human's effort to integrate the dark aspects. Even more interesting is the psychological aspect of Cloud accepting her power and divinity. When Cloud puts on the mask, her bear form, she accepts her shadow self, the part of her that can do violence and even kill, as her father has. But by accepting the mask, Cloud also acknowledges her power and the responsibility of her divinity, not an easy burden for human or even half-human. Although the author states in her acknowledgments that her novel is not a retelling of indigenous stories but is only inspired by the oral literature of the north Pacific coast, this unique fantasy novel is a rich and colorful evocation of its peoples and tales, giving the reader a real sense of place, culture and time, while telling a spellbinding tale. The scope and dimensions of this book make it one to keep on the shelf and read again and again. |
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