A Shape in the Dark

October 26, 2020
Wilderness guide Dihle creates a wide-ranging portrait of brown bears in this adventurous collection of essays. The book, Dihle writes, is “about our relationship with brown bears,” though it’s also an ode to Alaskan wilderness as his home state becomes “more encroached upon.” His experiences run between panic and reverence in the face of the “incredibly muscled and poised” animal, and interspersed with his encounters are profiles of past adventurers and their relationships with bears. Among them are John “Grizzly” Adams (it’s “unlikely that anyone has been mauled by bears more” than him, Dihle notes); Theodore Roosevelt (who “famously refused to kill a bear”); and hunting guide Ralph Young (who said he loved his wife but “loved the bears more”). In one touching moment, Dihle reveals that he named his son after the Shiras grizzlies from southeast Alaska: “When he is older, I will tell him the story of his name. How the government and corporations wanted to clear-cut and build roads across Admiralty.” He creates memorable portraits of fellow explorers, but where Dihle’s writing shines is in his unwavering appreciation of and commitment to preserving bears’ wild habitat: “Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.” With its vivid prose, this moving homage to Alaska and those who live there really hits home.