This story was great! As I was reading I totally lost my self in the story. The descriptions and well researched information took me back in time and I could almost hear the grunts, the crackle of the fire and smell the meat roasting! Sometimes though, details were a little much and I felt anxious to get on with the story when the author was explaining the tedious steps involved in making a weapon or such things like that. After finishing the book I have a yearning for simplicity. I set out to enjoy nature and nurish my body with the earth. My fitness trainers have been bothering me to try this new Paleo diet, (where we eat like cave men,) and after reading the descriptions of Ayla's lean long body I have decided to try it!

Muy entretenido, me sirvió para entender mas la vida de los humanos en la prehistoria que todas las clases de historia en el colegio. Había leído este libro hace ya muchos años y aunque me gustó no seguí con la serie porque me dio pereza por su larga extensión pero justo ahora recibí sin esperarlo todos los libros de regalo y decidí volverlo a leer para refrescar la memoria antes de leer el resto y me sigue pareciendo una gran forma de entender como vivían nuestros antecesores en el planeta de una forma muy amena. Le subo la nota a 4.

I could easily sit between a red-faced evolutionist and a screaming creationist, both arguing around me, and quite contentedly finish any book I was reading.

I'm no Louis Leakey, people.

I'm no Tammy Faye Baker, either.

I am, in fact, an anthropological airhead, and arguing with me about creationism or evolution is like trying to convince me to become interested in my car's transmission. Whatever the hell that is.

Ain't going to happen, folks.

I figure. . . if I don't personally have the ability to prove or disprove a theory (or identify a transmission), I'm just going to sit back, relax and focus on the stories.

I love stories.

And, since it turned out that my end-of-summer fantasy of having sex with Viggo Mortensen in a cave off of the Mediterranean Sea wasn't going to happen, I started searching for a story that would have an adventurous feel to it. And, you know. . . maybe some cave sex.

Neanderthal cave sex.

Now, if you're a creationist and you're getting worried about my language here, why don't we just replace the word Neanderthal for ex-boyfriends or my high school baseball team?

And if you're an anthropologist and you're getting worried that I know no concrete facts about the evolution of man, I apologize for my inability to truly understand that a Neanderthal is something different from an ex-boyfriend or my high school baseball team.

Everybody feeling good now? Sort of? More confused than ever?

So, back to the question. . . that you never asked. . . and possibly would never even wonder . . . did I find excellent cave sex in this book of Neanderthals (or primitive man, or whatever in hell these little sloped forehead, hairy pygmies are supposed to be)?

Well, does this answer your question?

In this primitive society, sex was as natural and unrestrained as sleeping or eating. Children learned
as they learned other skills and customs, by observing adults, and they played at intercourse as they mimicked other activities from a young age. Often a boy who reached puberty, but had not yet made his first kill and existed in a limbo between child and adult, penetrated a girl child even before she reached menarche. Hymens were pierced young, though males were a little fearful if blood was spilled and quickly ignored the girl if it happened

Ain't nothing sexy about that paragraph.

Ms. Auel. . . do you understand that I've been home with my children all summer? No sleepaway camp, no evenings out on the town?

Nada, lady.

It's been a long, hot summer. And I don't mean sexy hot. I mean. . . damn, it's been in the 90s forever.

I wanted to read about cave sex, not these little freaks.

And what's with their dialogue reading like Shakespearean soliloquies, when you clearly point out that these people can't do more than grunt and move their hands in rudimentary gestures?

How now, Ms. Auel?

Why do the Neanderthals talk with such sophistication?

And why did you need to take 10 pages to describe a green leaf (that wasn't quite green, but gray, and transparent and fluttering in the breeze, with spots on it)? Just write the word “leaf” and let's move on.

Ack! I can't wait to return my copy.

I'm using some hand signals right now, Ms. Auel. Can you see them?

I don't like Neanderthals. They're awful. So's this book.

I think I do prefer the Adam and Eve theory; they're like the Barbie and Ken of the ancient world, and I bet they had sex in a proper hotel.

And, just for the record, I hope the glorious angel Gabriel flies down from Heaven on a pterodactyl some day, and lands right on a street in New York City.

I feel like we'd all shut up at the same time and hum in peaceful wonder at our awesome existence.

Plus, his stories would be amazing.

The only things that are accurate in this book are contained in the endless infodumps. The facts may be well-researched, but the ideas Auel is pushing are both unscientific and obnoxious.

First and foremost, her take on evolution should be kept away from our young, who don't know any better and would believe that evolution has a purpose, from which it is but a step to intelligent design. Phrases like "nature's experiment", "in an effort to postpone extinction nature tried...", and even "destiny" creep up all the time. Look, no one knows for certain what caused Neanderthal extinction, but it was most probably a combination of external and quite random factors. Like being forced through a bottleneck by disease and then being hit by a climate change - just an example, and could have happened to us just as easily; could even happen still, actually.
I was going to cite the whole "genetic memory" as a second example, but on reflection it really doesn't need my pointing out that this is where we get firmly into the realm of fantasy, leaving speculative fiction far behind.

But even considered as a work of literature, this would be noticeably below standard. The writing is unnecessarily repetitively redundant, and leafing through the thesaurus at every opportunity doesn't make it any better. The tone and atmosphere don't exist. Whenever a feeble attempt is made by either, up pops an infodump or a disruptively modern, scientific-sounding term. And every single inference is spelled out for us stupid Cromagnons - wait, we are innovative and brilliant Cromagnons, not hidebound in tradition at all, never, never...

And don't let me forget the whole "white supremacy" message. I'll allow that Ayla's being blue-eyed blonde while everyone else is relatively swarthy may be just the author's working out a kink, to make her "ugly" when we know she's in fact beautiful, and not real true racism. But as far as I'm concerned she could be bright green and still have offensively "white" connotations. Do you guys really enjoy reading about someone who is best at everything, and I mean everything, exclusively by the right of her birth? Mastering all the Neanderthal skills of both sexes while still a kid, inventing new things, not losing anything in the emotional side of her life with all that intellect, even being the only one who sensed the earthquake! What's the challenge then? What could make an effective plot with a protagonist like that and an antagonist like a small bit of carefully blacked tough-cured hide? Ayla always wins and is always best, I'm sure the slowest reader would have grasped that after about five repetitions, and we get scores.

This is the kind of book some people recommend to young readers, thinking that the repetitions and the spelling-out are intended for them. In fact both are bad for them, disabling them as interested and active readers and conditioning them to like bad literature in general. Too bad there's so little fiction in prehistoric setting - this wouldn't have been nearly so popular else.

***
Update: I had a look at the reviews for further books in this series and found out that there is no mention of the fate of Broud's clan. What? At the end of the book, their position is almost as critical as Ayla's. What would they do next? While the clan consists of not very well-developed, frequently interchangeable characters, I was disappointed to find that even the author herself cares nothing for what would become of them. Only the blue-eyed girl matters, that's right. This would make me rate this book further down if that were possible.

I'll never forget the first time I read this book. I was in the 5th grade. It was sitting around my house - my mom is an English teacher, so we always had plenty of books lying around in various stages of reading completion - and the synopsis on the back cover caught my attention. Some pretty advanced themes for a 5th grader, as my teacher Mr. Konezney mentioned to my mother upon seeing me read this book in school - but it was my very first emotional connection to fictional characters. Ayla, Creb, Brun - I remember them all. I sobbed at the end of the book, not just because it was emotional, but I remember the sadness that I would never again be able to read this book with new eyes. I read it several times afterwards, but I haven't picked it up in years. I wonder if it would hold up as well now, but I almost want to leave it as I remember it just in case. The other books in the series are fine, but not nearly as strong in my opinion. I've heard the movie is terrible, but then what would you expect from a movie starring Darryl Hannah?

This was my second read-through of the book the first was almost 30 years ago. I remembered most of the story but I had forgotten the subelty of the story and how three-dimensional all of the characters were. I had only made it to book 4 in the series before so this time I am looking forward to finishing the entire series.

People will lie to you about this book. They don't realize that they're lying, but they are. I said I was reading this as part of my almost-finished effort to read the BBC Big Read list, and everyone I came across said "Wow, is there ever a lot of sex in that book!"

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

2.5 ⭐⭐
This book is not for everyone. It certainly wasn't for me.

It is astonishingly brutal in the description of both human endurance and cruelty.

The story is compelling and once you started it, you'll want to follow it to the end just so you can see what happens to the little orphan girl. But you may feel the need at times to alternately roll your eyes, hurl the book across the room, or punch something.

If there is one thing this book does well, it is to bring out negative emotions in the readers. It is a heart-wrenching story of survival of the fittest in one of the most cruel societies I have encountered until now.

The Clan of the Cave Bear has always been one of my favorite books. I think I've read it 8-10 times now, and it never gets old. This time reading it as an adult I was able to connect a lot better with the plot as it held a lot of adult themes compared to when I was eight. Yes, my parents were that sort.

Jean M. Auel has such a strong writing voice that helps you really connect with the characters and their surroundings.

I have always been a bit obsessed with prehistory, herbal tinctures, and tribal life in general so this book will always be on my bookshelf. I do have to finish the series, though.

Auel's books were the first taste (at the age of eight years old) of prehistory reading. After reading each book, each time, I would flick through afterward and write notes about herbs and draw them how they were described.

I even ran away once to live in a cave. Let's just leave it at that.

I will never stop recommending this book.
EVER. Even if you just read it once.

Incredible book. I did get a little annoyed every time the narrative voice felt it had to stop and point out that the Clan had reached their genetic conclusion, and of course would be surpassed by a newer (and possibly greater) species on earth’s stage. As given it was written by a member of that newer species it kind of felt a little like gloating. Still, five out five regardless.

This is another book that has been sitting on my shelf for years. I'm glad I finally picked it up, Is it historically accurate? Who cares, it's a story and a good one. I enjoyed reading this, I wish had read it years ago.

impressive saga of when life wasn't easy & relying on one life and death matter.
Jean did a good job bringing a whole ancient culture to life, well done.