Touching Spirit Bear

By: Ben Mikaelsen / Narrated By: Lee Tergesen

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Rage. Lies. Ultimately, though? Freedom.

I was kinda desperate, scrolling through my Library in the hopes of finding something for my sister’s Birthday List of Listens when I came upon Touching Spirit Bear. I’d never listened to it before, but the story of an angry young man doing the hard work and healing through nature, healing because a couple of men believed in him, seemed like it’d appeal to my sister. I’ll just say it: Our dad had anger issues, and anger wasn’t something we were taught how to handle properly. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to listen to a story of redemption?

Okay, so I started with it, and I was instantly surprised. I’m quite used to stories having the whole character-arc thing where the character does a 180 by the time the story ends. But that means they usually start off as total jerks. And whereas Cole Matthews does start off as a rage-filled, lying SOB who beat another boy senseless to where the boy suffers permanent damage, I could kinda sorta bond with him. This is unusual as really, what a mess Cole is. But he’s written by Ben Mikaelsen in such a humane way. His mother and father are wealthy, but dad is an abusive alcoholic who regularly beats Cole, and mom drinks too much, tunes out, and worries more about what she’s wearing than about what’s happening to her son. Sooo, I got him, I totally got him.

So here’s what we have: Cole is sent to a remote island instead of immediately to jail for beating Peter Driscal almost to death. And he lies, lies, lies to get sent there, and immediately burns down the hut that was built for him, burns up the supplies, means to swim away from the island, and tries to kill a spirit bear because the bear has the temerity NOT to be afraid of him.

Well, the bear pretty much nearly kills HIM, and as Cole is left mauled and broken out in the open, in the middle of storms, the young man starts connecting dots and realizes that he really, truly wishes to live a worthwhile life.

This is not an easy story. Because Cole lapses into rage a lot, but through the help of his parole officer and an elderly Native American man, he learns new ways of handling rage, of seeing the world around him, of seeing the world within himself. I appreciated that Mikaelsen didn’t take the easy way out and have Cole all of a sudden able to handle strong emotions. Cuz life’s not like that. We all have epiphanies, moments when the lights are turned on in a blinding flash, but then the lights go off again, and we’re left to navigate our way through some mighty dark alleys. And Cole has to grope his way through the dark of his soul throughout this really great book.

Lee Tergesen is totally believable as an angry young man who sometimes does his best but who mostly struggles. He is superb when he delivers the wisdom of Cole’s parole officer and Native American benefactors. Well, benefactors isn’t quite the word for them as they’re willing to drop him as a lost cause many a time. But still, I loved those characters. And when Peter comes back into the story, Tergesen delivers HIM with plenty of fear, plenty of anger also.

Truly a touching story that I felt ended a bit abruptly but ended in a mostly satisfying manner.

And I do believe it makes a grand addition to Sis’s Birthday Listens!