Why we chose Trina Moyle’s Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival

In classic Dad fashion, he added this book to his TBR after reading its review in the Winnipeg Free Press. A ‘small’ author published by an independent press (Pegasus Books), Dad did not realize this was a new release until I pointed that out. (It was tricky for me to get a copy from the library because of its recent release date, but luckily the timing worked out.) Black Bear caught his eye because of its human focus. He usually prefers character-driven literary fiction over genre fiction.

When Trina Moyles was five years old, her father, a wildlife biologist known in Peace River as “the bear guy,” brought home an orphaned black bear cub for a night before sending it to the Calgary Zoo. This brief but unforgettable encounter spurred Trina’s lifelong fascination with Ursus americanus—the most populous bear on the northern landscape, often considered a hindrance to human society. As a child roaming the shores of the Peace in the footsteps of her beloved older brother, Brendan, she understood bears to be invisible always present but mostly hidden and worthy of respect. Growing up during the oil boom of the 1990s, the threats in the siblings’ hard-drinking resource town were more human, dividing them from a natural reverence for the land, and eventually, from each other.

After years of working for human rights organizations, Trina returned to northern Alberta for a job as a fire tower lookout, while Brendan worked in the oil sands, vulnerable to a boom-and-bust economy and substance addiction. In 2019, she was assigned to a tower in a wildlife corridor. Bears were alarmingly visible and plentiful there, wandering metres away on the other side of an electrified fence surrounding the tower. Over four summers, Trina begins to move beyond fear and observe the extraordinary essence of the maligned black bear—a keystone species who is as subject to the environmental consequences of the oil economy as humans. At the same time, she searches for common ground with Brendan on the land that bonded them.

Goodreads

Our Discussion 💬

The Challenge of a Memoir

At the time of our discussion, we thought this was the first memoir or autobiographical story we’ve read together for Family Reads. (It turns out we’ve read two others, but those were over eight years ago.) Dad didn’t even think of Black Bear as a memoir while reading. We discussed some challenges the format presents, being true stories about real people.

It takes a skilled writer to provide enough details to satisfy the reader without publicizing more than they (or those about whom they write) would like. I found Black Bear a little too guarded at times. Dad thought some chunks of time were skipped over more than they should have been. For example, we would have liked to learn more about the parents in a story about siblinghood. Certain events that seem to have a critical impact on Trina and Brendan’s relationship are glossed over in a couple paragraphs.

Now, to be fair, Brendan is the author’s deceased brother. He can’t defend himself. So we can appreciate Moyles acknowledging that in her afterword, noting that Brendan might have described his own life differently than how she perceived it. I think this is a challenge of memoir-writing that is almost impossible to overcome. Overall, we think Moyles did a better job than some, sharing more than we would have if we ever found ourself in a similar position! We spent some time discussing how realistic the aspects of her sibling relationships that she did share felt, such as her feelings towards her brother’s children and the unexpectedness of Brendan’s death. This is the sort of thing Dad is referring to when he says he enjoys human focus stories.

I associated the word addict with individual failure, believing that addiction was something that happened to other people in other famlies – not my own. My brother was not that kind of guy. In my mind, he was still the brave boy who remained calm during the encounter with the elk.

Black Bear, 17%

Bears and Lookout Towers

We both felt the bear narrative dominated over the sibling reliationship narrative. Dad learn a lot about bears and bear-human interaction from this book. Like every other animal, humans are encroaching on their space. We have power and responsibility over bears, to protect their right to life. Early on, I worried a bit that the book was going to make me afraid of bears, as Moyles addresses fear of bears and some horrific bear attacks, but luckily that fear was quickly mitigated by Moyles own experiences with bears around her lookout tower. (It’s been a few years, but I have often encountered bears while on trails hiking or biking. It’s never been a problem, with myself or the bear always simply dpearting the area without conflict.)

Dad didn’t realize there are still manned fire lookout towers in Canada. I had a bit of awareness of the topic from watching Tiktok ‘day in the life’ videos from a fire lookout in the States. Alberta has the majority of fire lookouts in Canada (nearly 100 vs 5, 3, and 1 in other provinces/territories), with other parts of the country relying on more modern (ie technological) approaches. One character in the books posits Alberta still has staffed lookout towers “because we have oil” (70%). Dad and I debated this point, as no further explanation is given in the book. Dad thinks there are more manned towers in Alberta in part to react quicker to fires, before they grow in size. The time at the lookout tower made for a relatively peaceful and relaxing read.

Writing Style

Dad liked the insightful writing style, finding it easy to understand and follow. While the book contains a lot of factual information, there’s little scientific jargon. Most of the subjects are presented in a relatable manner. While I didn’t find the subject matter especially compelling, I also find it a quick read due to the smooth writing. It was easily digestible for my brain after a day at work. I finished it in two sittings.

Assorted Notes

Moyles has another memoir published in March 2021: Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest. There’s a lot of tower time in Black Bear, so we wondered how the two books compare. I noticed that book mentions a fiancé and a long-distance relationship, neither of which are mentioned in Black Bear. Dad was going to add it to his to-read shelf but noticed he already did that back in August 2022!

I came across some neat bonus content on the author’s website while preparing this post, including photos of the featured bears and a handdrawn map of her lookout tower area. I also found this in-depth news article she wrote in Dec 2023 about Churchill’s polar bears.

Final Thoughts 💭

I gave this book ★★★½ and Dad gave it ★★★★. Recommended for those interested in nature writing more so than addiction or bereavement writing – especially for those interested in bears, human-nature interactions, or northern Alberta lifestyles.

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 “Confronting the Bear: Why I Chose to Write a Book about Bears” by author Trina Moyles
🍂 Reviews: Rebecca of Bookish Beck @ Book Browse
🍂 Related: Dad and I have discussed three other non-fiction books for Family Reads: That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph, Perseverance by Tim Hague, and And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (our first Family Reads in September 2015! How things have changed since then…).

Have you ever had an encounter with a wild bear?
Have you read any good memoirs lately?