Clan of the Cave Bear

I know this is hardly a new book, but with the last installment being released earlier this year, I became curious.  Now that I've read  Clan of the Cave Bear, I understand why it is a name in literature.

Jean Auel creates a fascinating world among the Neanderthal people, with a complex society based on sexual divergence.  They use their racial memory to build on tradition.  I liked the idea that they died out, not because they weren't as "advanced" as the Cro-Magnon people, but that their evolutionary path made them unable to adapt.  If their racial memory did not contain information for them to deal with a situation, they were thrown into uncertainty.

The main character in this series, Ayla, is a highly likable character.  You understand her uncertainty and frustrations in dealing with a culture that limits women.  She must learn to submit to any man about anything, act meekly, and curb her exuberant spirit.  As Ayla becomes accepted by the clan, she gradually wins enough support to break with some of the Clan's long standing traditions.  With each victory you cheer and look for the next, and while a little voice may say that this should not be so easy for her, you don't want her to suffer.  As the book goes on Ayla's struggles become more realistic.

From the outside Clan life seems strange and unnecessarily restrictive, but through Clan leader Brun's eyes you can see how their society came to be this way.  He is the first among leaders, wise and thoughtful, drawing on the racial memories and wisdom of his line to help him deal with new problems.  He tries to teach a sort of fairness to his son Broud, Ayla's nemesis.  (As you can imagine, this does not go well, or else he would not be the major hurdle in her life.)

Every aspect of the book is well detailed.  Ayla is trained as a medicine woman, in selecting the proper plants or treatment for ailments as well as the spiritual rites associated with healing.  The constant descriptions of "primitive" healing are amazing.

Considering the end of the book, I had a good idea as to where the series was going regarding the beginning of the human race.  I searched at work for the rest of the series and hungrily read the synopsizes hoping for confirmation of my theory.  According to the other reviewers, the rest of the series focuses on Ayla, her sexual escapades, and her run-ins with other Cro Magnon people.  The Neanderthals that made the first books so interesting are hardly seen again, only cropping up briefly in a couple of books.  None of the other books have the acclaim of the first.  And while Ayla is likeable, she is not necessarily interesting.  She is "every woman."  Through her struggles with the male dominated Neanderthal society she becomes the first female in most of their racial memory to take on certain tasks.  She grows to the their wise woman and healer, and a true example of servitude to other women, while becoming the working woman.  As the series continues she personally thinks of nearly every human advancement, from domesticating and breeding animals to the more equal and democratic running of their clans to the concept of art.  While I appreciate following Ayla's life as the story for how humans as a whole have adapted, I would have been happier if she encountered some of these ideas instead of coming up with all of them herself.

But I cannot be too damning, as I haven't read the rest of the series myself.  I may someday, but the idea of reading five other hefty books that have barely a mention of what I found so interesting in the first, just to see how Ayla and her line continues has little appeal at the moment.

Overall I would definitely recommend The Clan of the Cave Bear.