Set in Cold War Soviet Russia, the book begins with an antiques dealer and his wife setting off on a ship for St. Petersburg. Their luggage contains drilon dresses, which they intend of selling on the black market, as a favor for a close friend of theirs. On the ride over, the main character Paul Hussey's wife becomes very ill and bed-ridden. As Paul goes to retrieve their room on arrival in St. Petersburg, his wife disappears. It is found out later that she has fallen for a lesbian nurse (I.E.: "His Honey has gone to the Russian Bears", says the back of the book). In Paul's duty as a friend, he soon tries to leave Russia wifeless and without any money whatsoever. He ends up having to kidnap the son of a Russian composer, in the process attempting to flee the country.

Anyone who's already read either "A Clockwork Orange", or the "Enderby" books. As most of his books are, Honey For The Bears is also very musical. Burgess's insight on the time period which the story spans is both entertaining and informative.

The strong character's interaction with the story. Times where there was a lot of action also satisfied me. There were other instinces where I'd find myself cracking up by the pure comic brilliance that Burgess so often maintains.

A lot of the dialouge. It often reads much like this excerpt:
'...And if this man Opiskin can get you formicating little peasants into such a lather there must quite definitly be a lot of good in him...' (Page 10)

Take a break from Burgess for a while. Yet I'll be reading "The Eve of Saint Venus" soon, it looks like an excellent book.

Like relationships are held on a thread. That life can be without purpose in most societies.

"The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and failed musician, short-sighted, color-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I have read." Said Burgess, in an interview with The Paris Review, in the year of 1973.

Burgess has a great command over langauge and some of the scenes are so easily pictured that you won't regret picking up "Honey for the Bears".

Some of the phrases and ways that Anthony Burgess words things may be very annoying to some people, but overall, I found the book more enjoyable than not. I won't not recommend this book.

"Honey For The Bears" is hilarious in its spin on Russia and often amusingly strong in its dialouge. There's a lot to like here. I think any audience could readily enjoy this kind of writing.

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Created Mar 18, 2006 at 2:22pm • Submit your own review...