Bear Maze!

In response to constant bear invasions, and with the heavy moral obligation to do no harm to the invaders, the city of Gibeah has decided to put every bear it can capture into the ancient maze at its center. They hoped in this way to both meet their moral obligations and to never see the bears again. Three years later, a discredited scientist and inventor by the name of Daedalus believes that these bears are in fact capable of solving and escaping the maze, and are at the heart of a brooding calamity threatening to destroy the city. At its heart, the book is a retelling of the myths of Daedalus—the story of Icarus, of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, and Pasiphaë with her bull, all only slightly readapted so that they may contain a Leper Colony and an intelligent, ominous threat of bears. It would be perhaps audacious to say that this retelling is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, in its deference to the great Greek art comedies and tragedies, but it can safely be said that 117,000 words were expended in the process (with a few minor repetitions). Numerous allusions are made throughout to Greek mythology, the Bible, Kafka, Dostoevsky, the German language and the author’s personal life, but all hopefully very tasteful and without presupposed knowledge on the part of the reader. Perhaps a great read.