Some decades ago, Kevin Starr, a historian and the Chief Librarian for the State of California, wrote a gigantic six volume history of the Golden State. It was a massive undertaking. Now, I am happy to state, there is another such endeavor, this one from the literary field, The Bear, a multi-volume saga of the McGuire Family that will span the entire history of this remarkable landscape. The latest volume in this series, The Bear: Water and Oil, is a stand-alone account of this family's response to the power and greed-obsessed interests determined to wrest a new land as theirs, at the expense of the original peoples and settlers who were already in California with dreams of their own. This novel depicts in gripping, sometimes violent, fashion how the McGuire clan, all strong characters with their own individual destinies at play, must always fight to keep a step ahead of these sinister forces (many of them historical personages), and the means they employ to stay there. Throughout the multi-generational narrative, the family struggles with earthquakes, pandemics, a corrupt Establishment, the KKK, political intrigues, Hollywood, Prohibition, racism, and even a World War! A welcome addition to the California literary landscape! ( )