The Beaufort Diaries
(Melville House, 2010)
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
What happens when an artic refugee finds himself adrift in LA-LA Land? Behold Beaufort’s rocket rise to stardom, his inevitable crash and burn, his enduring friendship with Leonardo DiCaprio, his dust-up with Scientology, and finally—his painful journey to redemption and bear-awareness.
Turns out when you’re a dying breeed in Hollywood, sometimes it’s tough to go with the floe.
WATCH an Animated Short Film adaptation of The Beaufort Diaries, starring David Duchovny.
“In this little gem we follow Beaufort, a polar bear, from the waters north of the Yukon, down along the Pacific coast, to the sake and sashimi of Southern California’s trendy Nobu restaurant…The narrative is spot-on with quirky satire that’s as side-splittingly funny as it is revealing. Cooper’s dynamite wit finds the perfect tempo as Beaufort’s inner-dialogues evolve to perfectly echo every stage of his stardom, demise and eventual East coast redemption…Petrowsky’s illustrations add depth, humor, and, at times, visceral awkwardness to Cooper’s warm tale.”
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
T Cooper does the kind of thing that drives other writers mad: He takes the bones of stories told many times, in many ways, and shapes them into something singular and breathtaking…. Cooper’s nearly flawless prose is the meat of this work: It’s as if the author challenged himself to test his talents with a scenario that in less able hands would almost necessarily lapse into cliché and cheap satire. Instead, Cooper makes it original, humane, and deeply funny.”
“There is a great deal of humor and tenderness here, a considerable achievement…The Beaufort Diaries is a polished and beguiling work, written with tact, benevolence and great empathy.”
— The Rumpus
“An unlikely premise — a polar bear makes it big in Los Angeles and then crashes — but somehow Cooper makes it work … outlandish and frequently hilarious.”
— Kirkus Reviews