The relatively minor characters in The Bear Went Over the Mountain are sketched with Kotzwinkle's characteristically deft, precise eye for a memorable, slightly odd trait that locates them firmly but unobtrusively within the narrative. Arthur Bramhall is developed in greater depth, but also in relatively straightforward fashion, his gradual displacement from human society and his eventual happy union with the natural world presented with an evocative clarity that makes his emotional turmoil affecting and quite understandable. The real challenge for Kotzwinkle is the character of Hal Jam, the bear. How can he be both bear and man, separately and simultaneously, and be authentic and convincing in this guise?

Kotzwinkle has written from the perspective of a nonhuman being many times before, as in the insect equivalents of the Sherlock Holmes characters in Trouble in Bugland (1983) or the supernatural entities in Hearts of Wood, and Other Timeless Tales (1986), and...