The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children (Paperback))

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Summary: Intriguing fictional depiction of evolution... mild spoilers
Review: An amazing epoch of what life may have been like prehistorically. The struggle for life. What is more important? Instinct or adaptability? Both have benefits and both have downfalls. But, historically and PREhistorically, mind has always won out over brawn, and speed and agility... This fictional novel depicts the lives and the emotion and the humanity of those that came before us and the struggles they may have dealt with. Some of the antics of our heroine, Ayla, may seem too ridiculously heroic and comic book character like, BUT the author is trying to envisage evolution for her reader, making neccessary some grand gestures. The mixing of neanderthal and cro magnum species is a unique and thought provoking setting. The driving force of this epoch is the humanity and the creativity that has set apart and driven mankind through the millenia. Ironically, a must read for hard science fiction buffs... as an understanding of where we came from....a glimpse, a picture of what may have been, sets the stage for where we are going and what we are capable of overcoming.

Rating:
Summary: Great for teens, good for adults
Review: As a teen I loved this book, and it was my first read over a couple hundred pages. I'm sure I'd like it today too, but a few things in it are a little too simplistic and repetetive for my tastes as a adult.

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Summary: Wonderful Description Of Life During The Ice Age
Review: Auel's story of Ayla who lived at an earlier time during human evolution is very exciting. Auel's description of life during the ice age is well researched and her writing is filled with description of life at that time. This is the first book in the series and, in my opinion, it is the best of the bunch. For the reader, it is thrilling to learn and imagine what life must have been like during this earlier age.

I "read the book" on an unabridged audio by Brilliance Corporation. Their version was very well produced so that the listener feels like he is right there with Ayla at that earlier time.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: I can only imagine the research and imagination required to bring this book into being. Though I didn't agree with everything in Auel's world, I was fascinated with it all nonetheless. This is a page turner and brain burner as well. Now I have to scramble to get the next one after staying up to finish it!


Rating:
Summary: A wonderful story of early man.
Review: I was introduced to this book this summer by my aunt. She recommended it as one of her favourites. So, I decided to give it a try. I found the beginning a little slow moving. Once I got into it I couldn't put it down. The story is starts at the begging of man and is based on the evolution of man. Ayla, the main character is left to die because her clan was killed in an earthquake. She is adopted by a passing clan and brought to live with them. The story deals with her acceptance into a very different community. She is cast as an outcast from her clan because she is different. In fact she is one step above them on the evolution scale. In the end she is exiled from the only family she has ever known and goes on to search for people like her. I enjoyed this book alot,especially learning about different plants and their many uses. Jean M. Auel wrote a wonderful book and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

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Summary: One of my all-time favorites
Review: I was only ten years old when my mom urged me to read this beautiful work. It was a little overwhelming at parts, but I've never regretted. The pure soul that Auel gives her characters is something that has been achieved by few other writers I've read. The work and passion that she has put into this world she's re-created is astounding. Although scientific findings have discounted many characteristics of the Clan (such as the intact hyoid bone found recently, indicating that Neandertals had full spoken language) the idea of this amazing species of hominid is compoletely engaging. And after reading this, who doesn't want to suddenly be as intelligent and powerful as the amazing Ayla? A wonderful book, which (in tandem with its follow-ups) inspired a great number of obsessions in me.

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Summary: This Book Rocks!!!
Review: No, really. This book falls under the category of being too well-researched. It reads like an odd combination of margin-scrawled Mary Sue and a Geology textbook. Right in the middle of potentially deep plot twists we are assaulted with a treatise on plants (some of which are not native to Europe, though for all her research the author hasn't got that figured out yet) minerals (pyrite ahoy!) and all sorts of boring details that could have easily been transformed into the main character's observations of her world in a much more subtle and readable way. As they are, it's merely distracting, and pulls attention away from character believability.

I can see why this book is so popular, and why the series simply will not die. However, it seems that all the issues that happen in the book (A struggle for a woman who wants to achieve social equality, birth/death/euthanasia of deformed children, the concept of insecure men trying to justify their manhood by raping women, being rejected as an outsider from society, etc) are, to be fair, issues that do, in some ways, transcend all times and places. However, Auel seems to be trying to make a comment on our own society through this struggle in her books by making the Neanderthal men the scapegoats for everything that is wrong in the world.

On top of all that, her main character, Ayla, is purposefully set apart to completely walk on water. She sings (wow!) cries (egads!) discovers reproduction, weaves baskets, makes knives, hunts, gathers, invents gloves, wrangles wild wildebeests with her BARE HANDS, memorizes herbs, cooks, hunts, is given equality with the men for a short time, learns everything super fast... oh yes did I mention she hunts? And she doesn't ever, ever have any sort of opposition besides the uninspiring force of society against her, which doesn't work at all for a struggle because she's not from their society in the first place. There is no sense of bringing the people who raised her with her progression either, because the whole society is written to be so stupid and only serve the purpose of making her look better.

And while we're on the subject of looking better, can we please, please, for once in the history of published Mary-Sues *not* have a character who is tall, athletic, blue-eyed and with "Wavy, thick blonde hair?" I don't care how perfect you are, you can't keep long hair (which of course Auel describes as "fine" earlier on in the book... go figure) free of tangles and healthy and shiney when you're more worried about hunting (oh yes did I mention she can hunt?) and providing for your family.

Except they're not her family, and even though we keep getting told that there are others like Ayla, we never see it, and Auel makes many frustrating presumptions upon an ancient society that it is not her place to make. Yes, you can research axes and spears and whatever still remains, but you have no right to assume that these people were really that dumb, especially when the only reason that they are dumb is to, what else, make your own character look that much smarter.

Bottom line: This book is written by a well-meaning, somewhat well-researched woman who either has issues with her own gender and status in society, thinks men are all stupid brutes, really really wants to be blonde and pretty and talented... Or all of the above. And when that is easy to see, the rest of the plot, however interesting, just falls flat.

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Summary: THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
Review: The Clan of the Cave Bear Crown Publishers, 2002, 468pp., $29.95
Jean M. Auel ISBN: 0-517-542021

The Clan of the Cave Bear is an extremely emotional novel. You will have mood swings all throughout the book. At one point you will be excited for a successful hunt, then crying over a tragic death in a family.
It all starts with a little, blonde-haired, five-year-old girl, Ayla, living with her mother in prehistoric Europe, 25,000 years from today. A terrible earthquake kills Ayla's mom and she is left alone. She ventures away from the constant aftershocks for a new home. She his hanging on the thread of her life in search for a miricle.
Jean Auel has a very descriptive style of writing. I see metaphors and personification all through the novel. She sometimes switches from scene to scene every chapter. She also writes cliffhangers. It really motivated me to read the next book, and then the whole set of books. There are five books in all.
I recommend The Clan of the Cave Bear to anybody who enjoys a novel full of magic, tradition, and adventure. It might not be suitable to younger children, it has a lot of violence and adultery related items. If you are above 13, you will love this book.

-Anita Better Book Review VI






Rating:
Summary: I'm absurdley attracted to novel series....
Review: This book is the first in a series to capture my imagination. To me, a novel that holds my interest must hold *some* realistic bearing of truth. At the same time however it MUST have a severe overlay of fiction. Believable, but definitely fiction. That's what I love about books. And this series is beyond fact, but it inspires my creative senses and imagination.

Gotta love a book like this. I began reading this series YEARS ago..when I was in middle school. I read the first two, and havne't had funds/memory to pick up the rest.

Wow. I definitely recommend this series.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificently compelling...
Review: This is a wonderfully entertaining, well-written and thought provoking story. The author did a superb job of developing character and plot, leaving the reader with a lust for the story to continue.