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Book Review

The Crimson Bears, Part II: A Hundred Doors

THE COLLIDESCOPE, August 7, 2022

Reviewed by Andrew Hermanski

From "A Review of The Crimson Bears by Tom La Farge"

Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland sets a young girl against unconventional magic, creatures, and realms. She walks through Wonderland conversing with its inhabitants, learning of their cultures and customs, and revealing facets about herself in the process. Carrol utilizes this technique, posing real-life experiences through the lens of fantasy, to explore individual psychology and development. Tom La Farge's The Crimson Bears (a single novel split into two published parts: The Crimson Bears and A Hundred Doors) seeks to do something similar. But where Carrol's novel focuses on these individual traits, La Farge's novel focuses on society and its power structures…. He uses anthropomorphized animals because it forces us to grapple with the odd nature of these structures as they are being attributed to creatures that do not typically display them. It allows us to understand why these structures exist in our world, how we can minimize their unfavorable aspects, and whether we can enhance the good through revolution, art, or general exploration.… READ MORE