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The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jean M. Auel (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (476 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When her parents are killed by an earthquake, 5-year-old Ayla wanders through the forest completely alone. Cold, hungry, and badly injured by a cave lion, the little girl is as good as gone until she is discovered by a group who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. This clan, left homeless by the same disaster, have little interest in the helpless girl who comes from the tribe they refer to as the "Others." Only their medicine woman sees in Ayla a fellow human, worthy of care. She painstakingly nurses her back to health--a decision that will forever alter the physical and emotional structure of the clan. Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by this outsider, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. And as Ayla begins to grow and mature, her natural tendencies emerge, putting her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle.

Although Jean Auel obviously takes certain liberties with the actions and motivations of all our ancestors, her extensive research into the Ice Age does shine through--especially in the detailed knowledge of plants and natural remedies used by the medicine woman and passed down to Ayla. Mostly, though, this first in the series of four is a wonderful story of survival. Ayla's personal evolution is a compelling and relevant tale. --Sara Nickerson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Imaginative, exciting."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Jean Auel has performed a minor miracle."
--San Francisco Chronicle



From the Trade Paperback edition. -- Review
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Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 495 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Books; Bantam Reissue edition (November 1, 1984)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553250426
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553250428
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (476 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #309,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Jean M. Auel
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Customer Reviews

476 Reviews
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 (382)
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 (53)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (476 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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96 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Am I Allowed To Do This?, August 21, 2001
By Eric Wilson "novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children) (Mass Market Paperback)
The upcoming publication of Auel's fifth book has renewed my interest in the EarthChildren series. I'm now re-reading the books and reviewing the first, which I originally read almost 18 years ago. Am I allowed to reminisce like this? Am I out of bounds? Well, don't try to stop me. This book is still clear in my mind after nearly two decades. In the early 80's, I thumbed through it at an Albertson's checkout line, finished the first chapter, and told my parents about it. I received it a week later for my birthday...and loved every minute of the story. Jean Auel's narrative powers swept me into a past rich and alive with people, creatures, smells, and sights that are immediately familiar, yet breathtakingly foreign. That's what first caught my attention. Then I began to care about Ayla, the skinny, pale child caught in an earthquake. I followed her story with keen interest and ached over her insecurities and alienation. This is a story about people with all the feelings and emotions of you and me. And though some tried to ban the book for one particular scene of forced sex, I found it in no way glorifying the act. In fact, as a teenager, it made me more aware of a female's struggle in a male-dominated society. I'll never forget the experience--indeed, that's what it was!--of reading this novel. To go back and relive the story of Ayla all over again is a treat. I can't wait for "The Shelters of Stone." Only rarely does an author create a world so rich and believable that we could almost call it home.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Clan of the Cave Bear, October 3, 2005
By Kyle M. Knapp (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children) (Mass Market Paperback)
The story's compelling, but often Auel's writing comes off as amateurish -- the quickness that Ayla grasps certain concepts, for example, such as when she guesses at the true cause of childbirth, or that she is "ugly" compared to Clan women, happen far too abruptly, even if she is a modern human. Something more dubious, though probably more forgivable if looking at the book as a work of fiction, is her decision to give the Neanderthal characters the gift of "racial memory," an ability to regain memories of their ancestors. that is connected to the enlargement of their brains toward the back.

Secondly, Auel's writing is not advanced enough to allow her to 'show' things rather than 'tell' them. This applies both to her characters and the society she is trying to depict. Most of the time, the characters -- Ayla being the exception, probably because it is easier for us (and Auel) to understand a character who is 'human' in the same way we are -- come off as somewhat flat. Potentially interesting character traits that Auel insists that these characters have are often negated when they act or speak. For example, she tells us that Creb is feared -- or at least seen as 'cold' -- by the Clan, but we never see this. She never shows us Creb's tenderness towards Ayla, we're merely told he feels it; She never shows us that Brun doubts his own authority, she simply tells us he does; both Creb and Iza treat Ayla with less love than we're told they feel for her. In addition, the 'formal' Clan way of speaking comes off as stilted and doesn't ring true, even if it's supposed to be a translation of sign language.

This same concept applies to Auel's depiction of the Clan society itself. She consistently fails to SHOW us the way the Clan functions -- she usually is forced to make a long digression from the story to explain to us a certain part of their way of life that is necessary for understanding the next part of the story; this has the double downside of being distracting and boring, as well as giving us a big clue as to what's about to happen -- she doesn't have the skill to use foreshadowing in any long-term or meaningful way. The effect is, of course, that by the end of the novel Auel's writing is entirely predictable.

But despite all of her faults as a writer, Auel is clearly a knowledgeable person, and even her digressions don't fail to carry some interest. Her prose, if not sophisticated, is usually clear, even if it does occasionally feel like reading a text book when she wanders too far from the story, or if she renders most of her characters faceless.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this!, August 11, 2002
By "keonie" (Melbourne, FL, US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children) (Mass Market Paperback)
This amazing book remains one of my favorites ever. This might sound 'sappy', but it's true! With beautiful writing, a well-researched setting, an engrossing plot, and lovable, if debatably human, characters, what more could one ask for in a novel? I normally read fantasy, and this exotic, nearly made-up setting sometimes qualifies at that -- but this is simply better than just about every fantasy novel out there!

Set in Ice Age Asia, this chronicles the life of a woman named Ayla. It begins with her as a young child, orphaned, who is adopted into a clan of Neandertals. Just about every novel I've read including Neandertals has them act human -- but these people are individual and distinguished from their Cro-Magnon contemporaries, without acting in the slightest like caveman savages. Jean Auel explains their larger brain mass, factoring it into the personality of the members of the 'Clan of the Cave Bear' (describing all of this race, not merely the clan Ayla is adopted into).

The young Ayla is different from the Clan people -- while not exactly 'smarter', she is far more creative. Not only that, but she's a tomboy. She defies Clan tradition by acting male -- something Clan females would never have considered. Yet the Clan members are no less special for their traditional actions. Iza, the clan medicine woman, and Creb ( a 'mog-ur', or shaman), are wonderful characters. And Ayla is amazing, throughout her life in the book.

Giving away the plot in this would be pointless. But "The Clan of the Cave Bear" -did- make me cry at the end. I don't see how anyone couldn't cry. I've cried at it every time I've read it. It's just that beautiful.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone. If you haven't already ordered this...do so! It's great. The only complaint I have about this is Ayla's ingenuity. She manages to come up with so many new ideas, ones that would be revolutionary even by Cro-Magnon standards, that it didn't seem realistic. Still, this doesn't detract from the story at all.

5 stars out of 5, no question about it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Ayla, Our Prehistoric Scarlet!
This novel is wonderfully well written and the reader automatically falls in love with, Ayla, a Chro-Magnon woman who finds herself living with Neanderthals. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Kaycee O'brien

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ!
For anyone not familiar with Jean Auel's work you're in for a real treat!
The first book in her Earth's Children series is the beginning of one of the most... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jennifer A Holbrook

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my Top Ten Favs...
An old favorite, the series by Auel was just recently brought back to mind when I found it at the library and reread The Clan of the Cave Bear. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rachel

5.0 out of 5 stars a man who hits his people can never lead the Clan
Little nonsense with great characters, what more can one ask for in a novel??? A plot, yep a pretty good one. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Candelario Henry Galvan

5.0 out of 5 stars Earth's Children Series (all 5 books)
This review is for the entire Earth's Children series. I purchased the set from Pristine Books through Amazon.com. Read more
Published 3 months ago by T. Anderson

3.0 out of 5 stars Irregularly labeled disks
There are 17 disks in this CD set. They're numbered 1-17. However, when I load them into my player, they loaded out of order (not numbered the same as they're labeled). Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. Pache

5.0 out of 5 stars Ken's opinion
This piece of fictional literiture has been researched and tho the charicters are fictional they are alive in this book.
this is a 5 star novel.
Published 3 months ago by K. Beam

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Series
I read this series of books by the great Jean Auel in the 80's & reread them all a second time in the 90's. I think I'm going for a 3rd turn now in 2010! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sunnfllower

5.0 out of 5 stars The Clan of the Cave Bear
An excellent AUEL written story that you cannot put down, Many suprises, and life as it was thousands of years ago. EXCELLENT RECOMMENDATION.
Published 4 months ago by John Pyle

5.0 out of 5 stars New favorite
Set 35,000 years ago this story takes you back in time effortlessly to a time of neanderthals and living in caves. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Renee Miller-Johnston

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