“Entertaining, nerve-racking, truly worthy art:” Two reviews of I’m With the Bears
I'm With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet has been picked as the Book of the Month by Dazed and Confused as
a devastating collection of short fiction that envisions the terrifying destruction ... in the face of climate change.
The reviewer highlights the "cumulative effect" of the "cautionary tales" included in the volume, which are "stimulating and frightening in equal measure." Special mention is made of the contributions by Margaret Atwood, Helen Simpson and David Mitchell, "masterly, genuinely nightmare inducing visions." The reviewer has no doubts: "This is a great collection of entertaining, nerve-racking, truly worthy art."
Laura McLean-Ferris also reviews the book for Art Review. According to McLean-Ferris, I'm With the Bears holds both horror and hope:
the kind of unremittingly horrific baby-barbecuing bleakness seen in Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006) ... the darkest of dark ages.
All the stories collected in the book "fizz with human spirit." In her view, one of the best is Wu Ming1's Arzèstula
a rather beautiful account ..... of the way language gets lost in the rubble, by following a female prophet who travels through Italy to a place where she practises clairvoyancy with a group of misfits.
The review selecting I'm With the Bears as the Book of the Month appeared in Dazed and Confused, print edition dated 1 December 2011.
Laura McLean-Ferris review appeared in the Art Review, print edition dated 1 December 2011.