Beginning with a dream in which he teaches a bespectacled bear to read, journalist and novelist Payton (Hail Mary Corner
) chronicles eight worldwide adventures he took to see a variety of bears in their natural habitat and understand their "political, economic, and cultural environments," delivering an extremely satisfying and sometimes provocative read. His accounts of his travels always present engrossing information on a range of topics, such as the politics of Chinese panda preservation, the squalid living conditions of the endangered Cambodian sun bear and the struggle to protect the Italian brown bear from the results of financial mismanagement at national parks. Each chapter is nicely structured and displays investigative skill; Payton's concern for environmental issues never gets in the way of his reporting. His final chapter on the American brown bears of the Colorado Plateau stylishly concludes with a moving meeting with a Navajo medicine man, who helps Payton understand that his dream and his subsequent travels are signs that he has a responsibility to tell his stories in respectful acknowledgment of the "the spirit of the bear." b&w illus. (July)
