Author: James Gould-Bourn
Genre: General Fiction
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: August 4, 2020
Book Description: Danny’s life is falling apart. He’s become a single father to eleven-year-old Will—who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash a year earlier—and Danny has just been fired from his construction job. To make matters worse, he’s behind on the rent and his nasty landlord is threatening to break his legs if he doesn’t pay soon. Danny needs money, and fast.
After observing local street performers in a nearby park, Danny spends his last few dollars on a tattered panda costume, impulsively deciding to become a dancing bear. While performing one day, Danny spots his son in the park, and chases off the older boys who are taunting him. Will opens up for the first time since his mother’s death, unaware that the man in the panda costume is his father. Afraid of disclosing his true identity, Danny comforts his son. But will Danny lose Will’s trust once he reveals who he is? And will he be able to dance his way out of debt, or be beaten up before he has a chance?
Filled with a colorful cast of characters, Bear Necessity is a refreshingly unpretentious and ultimately uplifting story of a father and son reconnecting in the most unlikely of circumstances.
Rating: 4 1/2 Stars
Review: Another book published by Scribner, and as usual, I just loved it. Scribner is becoming one of my go to publishers. This was such a charming story of a father and son learning to cope without the one woman they had never planned to lose.
Danny is a struggling widow and father to Will. For awhile it feels like nothing is going right. He can’t afford rent, he loses his job. He also is trying to help his son cope with the loss of his mother. Will was involved in the accident that took his mother away and he has chosen to not speak ever since.
What we get is a rich story of Danny who will do anything to save his family, even dress as a panda and dance in the street for money. Gould-Bourn wrote us an endearing cast of characters, from Mo (Will’s Best Friend), to Krystal (the pole-dancer who helps Danny learn to dance), with a culmination to a practically perfect ending.
I adored this book, and will definitely be thinking about this for a long time. Reader beware, you might want a few tissues handy whether they are for sad or happy tears, I will let you decide.
Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Obsessed Bookaholic 