The problem with good satire is not so much figuring out when it is being serious, but when it is being comical. As it often happens in the bestsatiric works, (see Kurt Vonnegut's \Slaughterhouse-Five"" or even Richard Russo's ""Straight Man"") the humorous aspect possesses such sharp brilliance that it threatens to make the lampooning words all too believable. When a book cuts so deeply into its target to draw the blood of a serious social critique, the satire lives up to its name and its meaning is far from mocking.
""Bear v. Shark,"" Chris Bachelder's first book, shows off what and sharp-elbowed satire can do. Targeting the American obsession with spectacle as well as Chuck Palahniuk, the premise pits two of nature's greatest predators against each another on a relatively even playing field. Young Curtis Norman wins tickets to this obscenely popular event and brings along his family, an alienated and fractured group that stumbles along in their S.U.V. all the way to the event.
Arriving in the sovereign nation of Las Vegas, (""America's younger, good-lookin' sister"") Curtis' dad, Mr. Norman, looks around to see nothing but bright lights and no substance. The father almost turned around somewhere in the desert but he, like the family he barely knows, turns their eye to the showdown of the two brutes.
All conversation throughout the book is, by necessity of its style, disjointed. The chapters rarely exceed two pages and reflect the attention span the characters allow themselves. Thoughts come as quickly as a commercial's images, popping up and disappearing before they can achieve any depth.
The Normans pass Teletown on their way to Las Vegas, spying a strange and enigmatic gathering of people who own televisions but, believe it or not, do not watch them. Mr. Norman turned around for this place but digital entertainment in Sin City was a stronger force.
Highlighting the unnatural premise is the fact that actual bear/shark confrontation does not feature a real, live bear slicing into a flesh-and-fin shark. The two are the products of computers, put together to appear ""convincingly fake."" As the Normans watch the beasts tear into each other, they stare, like they have for so long, at something they do not really believe but are entertained by. That entertainment, which they see as a right, is just enough to satisfy them.
Giving himself over to satire, Bachelder falls into the trap of the genre; he walks too close to his subject and turns ""Bear v. Shark"" into a spectacle itself. Reading the book keeps pages turning and the plot passing with a momentary digression to slow the pace. Reading becomes a visceral act that passes quickly and is forgotten just in time for the next big event, the next attention-grabbing bit of gruesomeness. While shooting down a culture of wired lifestyles and hectic living, Bachelder hits himself in the foot. This ironic mistake only proves how well the book works-satire even lampoons itself.
