Jack the Bear

by Dan McCall

First published in 1974, this story is to be made into a movie starring Danny DeVito. The book is about a family that's held together by a teenage boy after the mother dies and father - a TV star - falls apart on grief and drink.

Genres: Novels

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Dan received his Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, later attending Columbia University for his PhD. Upon graduation in 1966, he came to Cornell University where he taught American literature and creative writing to generations of Cornell students over the next 40 years. He is the author of several novels, including Jack the Bear (1974), Beecher (1979), Bluebird Canyon (1983), Triphammer (1990), and Messenger Bird (1993). Jack the Bear was translated into over a dozen languages, and was released as a 20th Century Fox film in 1993, starring Gary Sinise, Reese Witherspoon, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, among others. His critical and scholarly books include The Example of Richard Wright (1969), The Silence of Bartleby (1989), Citizens of Somewhere Else (1999) and the Norton Critical Edition of Melville's Short Novels (2002).

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the South American Explorers Club headquarters in Cuzco. I had seen the movie with Danny DeVito many times (it was one of my favorites in early high school), but I never knew it was based on a book.

I couldn't help but like it because I liked the movie so much, but it is a bit different. The movie cleaned the book up in more than one way. First, Jack's father smokes weed in the book and Jack does a little experimentation of his own that was completely left out of the movie. Second, the movie gives a little more focus than to the turmoil and traumatic events that occur in the book; the movie's villain, although clearly mentally unstable, is primarily a hateful and very racist man. This makes his actions believable. The novel's version of the same man is not so neatly packaged. He has motives of sorts, but he is also psychotic, so his reasoning does not always make sense.

It's a very fast read, and although I wasn't completely sold on the narrative style, I had fun with it. I always enjoy discovering where films or tv shows that I really enjoy came from.

[Jail Flanagain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great and incredibly ahead of it's time for the '70's. It definitely has a much more current feel to it, almost like a Rick Moody novel written now but set in the '70's except written in the '70's and way better than anything Rick Moody has ever done.
Oakland livers will enjoy the references to Lake Merrit, Grand Ave., Children's Fairyland, although I'm pretty sure "the Piedmont experimental school" has been gone for years.

[Marianinna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro es corto, pero aún así me hizo sentir muchas cosas diferentes: tristeza, alegría y hasta he reído en algunas partes. Los libros antiguos me dan la vida.

[Juraj Lks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trochu mi to pripomenulo seriál "Báječné léta - The Wonder Years". Dospievanie s dosť smutným záverom...

[Lula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante, sagaz, oscuro, fetichista, duro, asqueroso, triste, divertido. Como fueron los años 80. Teñidos de SIDA.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 (or maybe even 3.75) stars. This was a bit of a departure from McCall's normal writing (although this was written before most of his other fiction books), told from the point-of-view of 13-year-old John Jr. (aka Jack the Bear) about his life in 1970s Oakland with his father and his 3-year-old brother, Dylan, and their crazy neighbors.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the movie long ago, glad to have finally read the book. Thanks to my dad for gifting me one of his collection!

[Amanda Singleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and sad at the same time.