In part, this dynamic is driven by the developmental limitations of the Neanderthal people - individuals are incapable of free thought and everything they “know” how to do is genetically pre-programmed into their brains. In the Clan, women are second-class citizens: they are submissive to the men, they depend on the men for leadership and guidance, and they are happy with their roles in life. We get a glimpse into a society radically different from those of modern times and yet one that can also be strikingly familiar at times. What I think I loved most about this story was the gender dynamics of the Clan. Auel has created such a believable and historically viable story, that the reader can’t help but fall into the lives of these people, who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. In the first of Jean Auel’s “Earth’s Children” series, we get a first-person perspective into what it would be like to live as a Neanderthal person more than 25,000 years ago, and I was fascinated at every turn. I know I’m decades behind in picking up this title, but I’m so glad that I did. Review #3 The Clan of the Cave Bear audiobook by Jean M. With great characters, a moving plot, and a fascinating setting, there’s a reason that Auel’s Earth Children series is so popular! If you’re a fan of historical fiction then you need to read this amazing series! The fact she also has a very human story in the character of Ayla’s early childhood and coming of age as an adult only makes the story even more gripping. Through Ayla, we can get a glimpse of how our ancestors lived and how their cultures developed. Set in the ice age, Auel’s meticulous research into survival tactics, primitive technology, and megalithic wildlife now extinct brings to life the distant past of the earliest humans. Consumed by jealousy, the young Neanderthal will do anything to hurt or degrade Ayla.Ĭlan of the Cave Bear is a brilliant book. But if she can’t adapt, the Clan will punish her.Īnd Broud, the clan leader’s son, is eager to see that she fails. Ayla has to learn, bending her personality to their rigid practices. Their customs, their behavior, and their social relationships are different from humans, but their emotions are so familiar. Not Cro Magnum like Alya, but Neanderthal at the waning end of their races existence, the Clan takes in the girl of the Others.Īyla has to adapt to the similar but different Clan. Starving, dehydrated, and mauled by a cave lion, she is found wandering by Iza, a medicine woman of the Clan. Set in during the last Ice Age, Ayla, a primitive human girl of five, loses her family in an earthquake.
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