The Bear Came Over the Mountain
Critique • Quotes
Story collection first editionFirst publication
1999 in The New Yorker magazine
First book publication
2001 in story collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Literary form
Story
Genres
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
Canada
Length
Approx. 16,000 words
Notable lines
Fiona lived in her parents' house, in the town where she and Grant went to university.
— Last lines
"Do you think it would be fun—?" Fiona shouted. "Do you think it would be fun if we got married?"
He took her up on it, he shouted yes. He wanted never to be away from her. She had the spark of life.
But would it have been better if he had done as others had done with their wives, and left her? He had never thought of such a thing. He had never stopped making love to Fiona. He had not stayed away from her for a single night.
"I don't think it's anything to worry about," she said. "I expect I'm just losing my mind."
Nowhere had there been any acknowledgment that the life of a philanderer (if that was what Grant had to call himself—he who had not had half as many conquests as the man who had reproached him in his dream) involved acts of generosity, and even sacrifice.
Anyway, it was necessary for her to turn her attention back to Aubrey, who was pulling his great thick hand out of hers. "What is it?" she said. "What is it, dear heart?" Grant had never heard her use this flowery expression before."
"You could have just driven away," she said. "Just driven away without a care in the world and forsook me. Forsooken me. Forsaken."
He kept his face against her white hair, her pink scalp, her sweetly shaped skull. He said, Not a chance.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes
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Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
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