No spoilers
But for a couple of reasons I wanted to come back and have my say on this one. I wouldn't have picked up the book normally. The cover reminded me a little of an adult Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver. I read Wolf Brother whilst at university, after a recommendation from JJ, who had enjoyed reading it as a kid. So I read it. I remember it being okay, but found it a little forgettable. For instance, I cannot now remember the main characters name. I feared I would have the same reaction to The Clan of the Cave Bear, as I did to Wolf Brother. However, it was on the BBC Big Read list that I'm trying to work through, at number 97 (out of 100) and I spied it whilst visiting Manchester central library, so thought I'd give it a whirl.
How do you even pronounce that surname anyway?
Now, this book seems to be, on Goodreads at least, a bit of a Marmite book. People love it and people hate it. There aren't many 'it was okay' kind of reviews. But first, a rapid plot outline.
It's set in the times of the Neanderthals. Mammoths and giant cave bears roam the physical plane and totem spirits determine your fate in hunting and mating. Ayla, a blonde, fair, five year old child is left alone and presumably orphaned when a giant earthquake destroys everything she ever knew. She's picked up by a group of travelling Neanderthal, who are looking for a new cave to live in after the same earthquake destroyed their last one. The rest is best surmised by Goodreads:
"Ayla inspires first surprise, then wariness and finally acceptance by the Clan. She is cared for by its medicine woman Iza and its wise holy man Creb. Only their future leader, Broud, is not willing to accept this strange woman. Consumed with hatred, he does all he can to destroy her. But Ayla bears the marks and the spirit of her totem, the Cave Lion. She is a survivor."
People seem to have two main issues with this book.
1) Little white girl can do everything better than the slow, dying race that are the Neanderthals. They see her as an annoying 'golden child' and see the author as being a little white-supremacist.
2) Do you even science? Readers are picking holes here there and everywhere in the claims Auel makes about Neanderthals, what they looked like, how they lived and everything that Auel has written about their world.
So my opinion? First a confession: I know next to nothing about the Neanderthals. So I won't lie, the historical subtext... I have no clue. I enjoyed the little tit-bits of information scattered throughout the text and did not consider it 'info dumping' as some have suggested it feels like.
I consider myself sensible enough to take everything with a pinch of salt, and research the things I find interesting, to separate the fact from fiction. I guess what the historical nit-pickers are worried about is that people will take what Auel has written, as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Clan of the Cave Bear is very plausible and well written - It sounds like Auel knows what she's on about, because she writes with such conviction. This hasn't changed my opinion - I will not assume that that period of history is exactly how it is portrayed in this book because I have an ounce of common sense in me. I enjoyed her portrayal of the era, and the facts strewn around within the novel because they all added so well to the story. I think the people here need to remember that this is a work of fiction. If she got some things wrong, well, she's only human and new discoveries are being made all of the time. The book was written in the 80's.
(evolutionanimation.wordpress.com)
As for the golden child syndrome issue - I don't think there is one. Yes Ayla does some things better than the Neaderthals. But they do things better than her too. They teach her things. Iza, the medicine woman, takes her in in the first place, almost adopts her. That compassion sets her, and the Neanderthals in general, very high in my esteem right from the word go. The Neanderthal people survived the earthquake (most of them anyway) - Ayla's family did not. As I understand it, Ayla's race did eventually continue to evolve, whereas the Neanderthals eventually died out. So with that in mind, perhaps the fact that Ayla could do some things better than the Neanderthals was simply based in historical/scientific fact. (Please, pre-history boffins out there, do, do correct me if I am wrong here.)
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. I could curl up and escape into a pre-historic world for a couple of chapters, pop it down, do something else, then come back a while later and immerse myself again. I really liked the characters, and I felt like you really knew them by the end of the novel. A good one to read in an armchair on a stormy night. With toast and tea. Lovely.
From your favourite person that knows nothing about the prehistoric era,
Over and out.
