Setting Free the Bears (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Irving
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Plot: Comic realism
- Time of Work: Spring and summer of 1967, with flashbacks to the years 1938-1955
- Setting: Primarily Austria (especially Vienna) and Yugoslavia
- Principal Characters: Hannes Graff, Siegfried (Siggy) Javotnik, Hilke Marter, Gallen, Zahn Glanz, Grandfather Marter, Ernst Watzek-Trummer, Vratno Javotnik, Gottlob Wut
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s
- Locales: Austria
The Novel
Setting Free the Bears is divided into three parts. The first, titled “Siggy,” is narrated in the first person by Hannes Graff, one of the principals in the book. The second part contains Siggy’s notebook, with entries alternating between his “Zoo Watches,” in which he spies on the guards and animals at the Heitzinger Zoo outside Vienna preparatory to freeing the animals, and his “Pre-History,” in which is recounted the personal history of Siggy against a background of World War II, particularly during the Anschluss and with the partisans in the...
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