Review 88: The Clan of the Cave Bear

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a classic, I've heard about it for years, was recommended to me to read it, and finally have read it. I found it difficult to get into the book, was ready to stop, but around the half-way mark I gave into the story and started to enjoy it, yet...

The story is of a young girl who lost her clan, then found by another, but of another type of people. This is so long ago we are talking about pre-homo sapiens girl (Ayla) being found by a Neanderthal clan. She is born of "the others" and looks ugly, huge, and has all sorts of differences, but she eventually is accepted. Her differences, and acceptance, is a major problem with Broud, the next in line to be clan leader. The story is about her growing up, exploring the differences between her and the adopted clan.

The story, plot and characters were interesting enough. My problem became the writing style. So often I was taken out of the story by modern words and descriptions that these ancient humans would have no understanding, no comprehension. Take for instance: a totem piece added to Ayla's bundle, called a fossilized gastropod cast or a fossil cast of a gastropod. That is modern language. Then there's calling a baby born dead as still born, or the elderly having bouts of rheumatism. just to name a few examples.

This type of language peppered the story and every time I was taken out of the suspension of belief. This makes me not want to continue the story. I feel like I've read enough. I like the idea behind the story, just not the way it was told.



Instead of continuing Auel's series, I'm going to stick with a series I've enjoyed, while not quite as long ago, it has some of the same underlying features of ancient peoples, living in their world: North America's Forgotten Past The series of books, authored by husband and wife team of anthropologists, take you into their world and you live in it.