¡Sencillamente impresionante!

Conocí este libro por mi amigo Juan Fernando Salazar quién me pidió hace algunas navidades que le ayudará a conseguir copias impresas de la saga completa. El motivo era que quería preparar un regalo sorpresa para su esposa, mi también amiga Angela Rendón y quien resulto ser una fanática de los libros de Jean M. Auel, la autora.

Mi primera impresión de los libros de la saga es que se trataba de literatura juvenil, aunque Angela era una adulta ¿por qué le gustaban tanto?.

Las múltiples ediciones que se han publicado y se siguen publicando de la saga desde que apareció el primer libro a principios de los 1980, tienen siempre esa apariencia de libros de aventura con carátulas coloridas y mostrando siempre figuras que les hacen atractivos a la vista. En suma, libros que consumen en su mayoría personas jóvenes.

Pero como toda primera impresión, está también estaba cargada de sesgos inconscientes.

Para empezar la literatura juvenil puede llegar a ser tan o más sofisticada que el resto de la literatura, de modo que no es del caso hacer una distinción o pensar que por tener una caratula colorida la obra esta dirigida a un público no adulto. Es más, en el caso particular de "El clan del oso cavernario", que obviamente no considero ahora sea un libro de literatura juvenil por supuesto, espero de verdad que en caso de haber sido leído por mucha gente joven en estos 40 años, haya cumplido bien su cometido de enganchar a un montón de lectores y lectoras con esta obra asombrosa y con la increíble cantidad de buena ciencia que contiene. Todo parece indicar que sí, tal y como lo refleja la increíble cifra de 45 millones de personas que han leído sus libros en todo el mundo.

A pesar de mis engañosas impresiones, y tocado por el bicho de la curiosidad de que una amiga como Angela, que es además una científica reconocida, fuera fanática de la obra de Auel, me anime a conseguir mi copia propia, al menos la del primer libro, y ver te que iba la saga. El tema, para empezar, no podía ser mejor para mí: una ficción sobre la vida de los humanos en tiempos prehistóricos.

Siempre me ha llamado poderosamente la atención la historia de nuestra especie y en general de todas las especies de humanos que vivieron en el que conocemos como el período paleolítico. Aunque se que otros autores y autoras han abordado el tema, tanto en la literatura como el cine, mi exposición a esas ficciones me ha mostrado que nuestro imaginario sobre el pasado está demasiado cargado con lo que sabemos sobre el presente. Que no hay formas "limpias" de reconstruir lo que paso hace decenas de miles de años, ni siquiera con nuestra propia especie.

Bueno, eso fue hasta que leí "El clan del oso cavernario".

No esperaba sinceramente encontrarme con una autora con los conocimientos, la intuición humana y científica, la creatividad y en suma con la genialidad de Juan Auel.

Auel, en lugar de restringirse a narrar la vida de un grupo de humanos durante uno de los períodos glaciales del pasado, se mete en "camisa de once varas" y decide contar la historia del encuentro entre dos especies humanas: Homo sapiens y Homo neanderthalensis (Neandertales en breve y en lo sucesivo).

Sencillamente ¡genial!

Es un hecho bien conocido hoy, gracias a los avances en paleoantropología y especialmente en biología molecular, que las dos especies más recientes del género Homo -o humanos en breve- convivieron en regiones de Europa durante los últimos dos o tres períodos glaciares. En el proceso sufrieron lo que en biología se conoce como hibridación o en palabras llanas, tuvieron sexo y dejaron descendientes. Como producto de esta hibridación, algunos genes, que sabemos eran exclusivos de nuestros hermanos Neandertales, quedaron en el genoma de Sapiens y allí están, al parecer, produciendo un recuerdo genético de un pasado con una diversidad humana más amplia.

Lo que no sabemos exactamente, y las moléculas de ADN y muchos restos arqueológicos no pueden contarnos, es cuáles fueron las condiciones en las que ocurrió esa hibridación, es decir, bajo que circunstancias machos y hembras de ambas especies se encontraron, superaron sus diferencias físicas -por no decir genéticas que sabemos que no fueron obstáculo-, sus diferencias culturales y lingüísticas y pudieron finalmente reproducirse.

Este es precisamente el tema del primer libro de esta increíble saga. ¡No les parece genial!

Podría uno pensar, sin embargo, que es fácil imaginarse algunos de esos encuentros. Tal vez las diferencias físicas y culturales no fueron tan grandes y el amor interespecífico no fue tan raro en el paleolítico. O tal vez, y más perturbadoramente, las hibridaciones se produjeron por violaciones y nunca en encuentros pacíficos, como sabemos ha ocurrido entre especies de primates modernos.

Pero no. En realidad la tarea de imaginar este cruce entre especies es particularmente difícil y es allí donde la genialidad de Auel me dejo de una sola pieza.

Para empezar, la autora tuvo que resolver el problema de la comunicación entre dos tipos de mentes humanas, una posiblemente similar a la nuestra (la mente de los Sapiens paleolíticos) y una mente completamente extinta.

El problema más serio es que lo que pasaba en mente de los Neandertales, cuya estructura cerebral desconocemos casi completamente, solo puede deducirse a partir de algunos restos encontrados, por ejemplo objetos artísticos, enterramientos, entre otros. Estos restos nos dan algunas pistas de su cultura y nos muestran que era más sofisticada de lo que se podría pensar en un principio. Pero nada más. Lo que puedas decir a partir de ahí sobre lo que pasaba por la cabeza de los Neandertales corre por cuenta de la imaginación literaria.

De otro lado esta la mente de los Sapiens del paleolítico, o "los otros" como les llaman los Neandertales de la saga de Auel. Aunque parece fácil imaginarse lo que pensaba un humano de hace 50.000 años, la verdad es que también es difícil. Si nos queda fácil imaginarnos lo que piensan personas de culturas lejanas pero contemporáneas, ya se imaginaran el salto que debemos dar para ponernos en la piel de una mujer Sapiens paleolítica.

Para lograrlo Auel realiza la hazaña de inventar, no solamente un lenguaje Neandertal -o uno de muchos que existieron seguramente entre ellos-, sino también crear casi desde cero -aunque a imagen de las culturas Sapiens-, una cultura, una religión, un modo de ver el mundo humano, pero Neandertal. A través de cientos de páginas, Auel te transporta a las mentes de estos humanos, te introduce en la culturas lamentablemente hoy extintas. En el proceso te ves obligado a hacer un ejercicio de otredad que difícilmente puedes hacer, incluso con casi cualquier otra obra literaria, en su inmensa mayoría protagonizada solamente por Sapiens.

La obra abunda en descripciones abrumadoramente pormenorizadas de los lugares de un mundo desconocido, la Tierra de una era glacial, de animales extintos, incluyendo sus características físicas y comportamientos particulares, y lo más increíble, una enorme diversidad de plantas, en especial plantas con aplicaciones medicinales. Estoy completamente seguro que Jean Auel es una experta en el tema. Y es que no puedo imaginarme a una escritora aficionada a la botánica y con una enciclopedia capaz de producir las descripciones increíblemente pormenorizadas de las plantas y sus efectos que hay en esta novela.

Cada cosa me sorprendía más que la anterior.

Debo confesar que este nivel de detalle puede restarle atractivo a la novela en algunos apartes. Incluso puede llegar a ser la causa de que algunas personas la abandonen sin terminarla. No les culparía. En muchas ocasiones me sentí transportado a los interminables -y posiblemente insoportables- capítulos de la gran novela "Moby Dick" en los que Melville en los que el autor, aparentemente sin buenas razones, se dedica a hacer un pequeño tratado de ballenología (sic.). Ahora que lo digo "El clan del oso cavernario" se podría llamar la Moby Dick de la paleoantropología.

Tenemos pues ante nosotros no solo una bella novela inspirada en el encuentro entre los humanos del pasado, sino también una obra de divulgación paleontológica y biológica escrita en código literario y que, creo, no tiene parangón en la literatura. Un verdadero viaje a la otredad de las personas que habitaran la Tierra mucho antes de que Sapiens ganará la batalla por la supervivencia en un planeta cambiante.

Naturalmente quede enganchado con la saga. Por aquí seguiré reportando mis avances con los otros libros. Ya empecé con el Valle de los Caballos.

Ik vind geschiedenis altijd wel interessant. Helaas is dit boek niks voor mij. Na een tijdje weet je wel wat hun voedsel is, welke wapens ze gebruiken en hoe de verhoudingen en regels zijn in de stam. Uiteindelijk vond ik het maar langdradig worden en werd ik er zelfs slaperig van. Nee wat dat betreft had ik liever een kort en bondig verhaal over deze stam gelezen in plaats van dat het zo erg uitgerekt is.

Re-read July 2020. Still a 5 star read, this series will never get old.

I read this for the first time years ago and although there's absolutely zero romance at all, not even a hero (that comes in the next book .... Jondalar, be still my beating heart!), sometimes the story is just that good romance doesn't need to feature, this is one of those.

I adored this book, and still do after re-reads. A truly amazing, captivating and fascinating series that will stay at the very top of my all time favourites list.

Not even 10 stars is enough for this book.

It took me TWO months to read this book. TWO WHOLE MONTHS and I am still super confused about how I feel. On one hand, the premise and execution are awe-inspiring and I have to give it to Jean Auel for her expansive research during a (pre-internet) time when so little was known about the Pre-historic era. BUT.

But the misogynistic culture depicted in the clan made it extremely difficult for me to read. I am not sure if it was known during the time Auel was researching the Earth's Children series but the societies of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were actually egalitarian. I have read my share of misogynistic literature but TCoftCB was completely a different beast to handle.

Then there's the problem with Ayla, the grandmother of every Mary Sue in literature. She's blonde, she's tall and slim (but of course she thinks she's ugly), she can hunt (women aren't allowed to hunt cuz they are inferior), she has the strongest totem (except for Broud's) she's an awesome medicine woman, everyone loves her (except Broud, the prehistoric ratbastard how dare he!!!!!!!!). She can do everything WOW!!!11!!!!!! I don't know if Auel intended it but TCotCB has subtle racist undertones and it really prevented me from fully enjoying the book. (not to mention the rape and regular beatings- this book is a white supremacist's wet dream)

4,5

Esta novela es el primer libro de lo que será una saga de otros cinco. El libro esta ambientado en la pre historia, y nos va a narrar la vida de Ayla, que será nuestra protagonista.
Ayla debido a un terremoto pierde a su familia, una familia Homo Sapiens y será rescatada por la curandera, otro personaje muy importante en la historia, de otra especie, algo diferente.
Ayla será aceptada por el clan, e iremos viviendo con ella sus primeros años de vida, como la tratan, unos con desprecio por ser diferente, y otros con mucho cariño. La pequeña sufrirá mucho durante toda la convivencia por querer reconocerse y saber quien es.
Asique iremos viviendo las costumbres de este clan, la ambientación de la época, el modo de vida, y la manera de relacionarse, teniendo en cuenta que todo pertenece a una historia inventada ya que no hay datos sobre esta época, aunque se ve todo el trabajo que hay detrás.
Para mi esta novela tiene un toque feminista, un mundo donde claramente gobiernan los hombres y las mujeres son tratadas como seres inferiores, pero llega Ayla y lo revoluciona todo, porque ella quiere hacer siempre lo que le gusta y lo que quiere y eso a veces no es cosa de mujeres…
Como pega, y por eso no se lleva las cinco estrellas, es que hay momentos que se hacen muy repetitivos, el tema de los rituales, de la religión, se usa para todo y hay partes que se hace algo de bola.
Pero eso si, el final es magnifico, un final perfecto para comenzar la segunda parte.

No llevaba grandes expectativas con este libro. Sin embargo me quedo con ganas de continuar la saga.

A disappointment. The concept is interesting, especially in light of recent archaeological evidence suggesting that Neandertals and Cro-Magnons (anatomically modern humans) may have interbred. However, the execution is extremely poor. The pacing is uneven, the prose is so flowery it hurts, and the characters are flat. Some other things that bothered me:
--The author has the tendency to "info-dump", frequently disrupting the flow of the story to deliver lengthy descriptions of plants, rocks, characters' appearances, etc. I understand that setting is important here, as most readers aren't likely to be familiar with the flora and fauna of Ice Age Europe. In that regard, it's obvious that she did her research, but I felt the depiction could have been done better; maybe if the prose weren't so purple, or if she didn't describe the same caves, valleys, and plants over and over again, I wouldn't have minded so much.
--The repetition. Oh lord, the repetition. Constant reiterations of how different Ayla is, how special, how strange, how unique, blah blah blah. Yes, she is different from the people of the Clan (I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say her belonging to a different species might have something to do with that), WE GET IT, MOVE ON.
--Faulty science. Somewhere near the beginning of the book, Auel makes some kind of reference to the size of the Clan members' (Neandertals) heads being related to how much knowledge they can hold. At first, this seems to make some sort of sense, as the size of the skull influences brain size (although brain size and intelligence are not directly correlated--Neandertals' brains were actually larger than ours, though we have no way of knowing how smart they were). But later on she states that this is the reason they cannot progress technologically--because their brains, and therefore their skulls, would have to get larger in order to learn new things, and if their heads get too large, childbirth will become impossible. Honey, that is just not how it works. Does your brain get bigger every time you learn something new? No? Didn't think so. There are also numerous references to "the memories"--knowledge of ceremonies, traditions, skills and Clan history that Clan members are apparently born with. They also have some kind of mystical abilities to access and share the memories of their ancestors stored in their own minds. Though it makes for an intriguing storytelling element, this notion is historically and scientifically ridiculous. It isn't possible for someone to be born with memories or cultural knowledge--culture is learned, and memories are gathered through personal experience. If this were a fantasy book, the mystical story elements would make more sense. But Clan of the Cave Bear isn't a fantasy (supposedly). I found it in the historical fiction section of the library, and I've seen it listed as historical fiction everywhere else I've looked.
Just as ludicrous were Auel's assertions that the Clan people are capable of speech but not laughter (fossil evidence suggests that Neandertals did had the capacity for vocal communication, and if they can speak, there's no reason why they should be unable to laugh), and incapable of crying. These were merely plot devices to make Ayla stand out, but the absolute lack of logic in these distinctions makes me wonder if Auel put any thought at all into why they should exist.
--All of the Neandertal characters have dark hair, skin and eyes, whereas Ayla is blonde, blue-eyed and fair-skinned. I suppose I should give Auel a break on this one, since the book was written in the 1980s, while technology that made it possible to sequence Neandertal DNA--which led to the discovery that some of them possessed the genes coding for fair skin and red or blond hair--wasn't available until a few years ago. Still, I sensed a white supremacist agenda. Ayla, the "golden-haired goddess" is so much better at everything than the people of the Clan, she seems to bring them luck, everything is better with her around, and anyone who treats her badly receives divine retribution.

Who knew that the story of a Cro Magnon girl (living with, then leaving her Neanderthal clan) could be so interesting? Read all six books for a thoroughly interesting look at Planet Earth 15,000 years ago.

I have hardly ever read a novel that was both so entertaining and so educational

Schools could skip a longer part of history by just giving this novel to the pupils. Described by the view of a young girl, the progress of the development of culture is shown uniquely.
The average Stone Age fantasy novel may include war, monsters, an epic love story, etc.
In this case, the slow telling shows the functioning of a forming society, it´s mechanisms and the rise of intelligence that leads to complex societies.

"[Ayla] was a woman, and she had more courage than you...more determination, more self-control"

Ayla is a five year old child when an earthquake forces her to flee her destroyed home and her dead parents. Iza, the medicine woman of the Clan of the Cave Bear, stumbles upon her and takes her under her wing, but Broud, the proud son of the clan leader, Brun, takes an immediate disliking to the young non-Clan girl. Ayla grows up among the clan and struggles to find her place.

I've heard so much about this series of books, particularly with the most recent (and apparently last of the series??) release of The Land of Painted Caves. While I had read that that book wasn't so hot, I did read reviews that praised the first few books. So I went out and got my hands on an audiobook of the first in the Earth's Children series.

First off, I have to give kudos to Auel for all the research and time she put into this novel. This woman didn't go, "I'm going to write a pre-historic novel" and then just throw in some almost modern humans in a wallpaper world. This book transports you back before cars and computers, before women's rights and civil rights, into a fantasy realm of what the world might have been like before the modern age. It was vibrant and meticulously detailed. I loved how the Others could speak but the Clan could not; how the Clan could access memories but were bad at new innovations while the opposite was true of the Others. A lesser author, like I said, would have seen the work needed and given up; Auel pushed on and produced a damn fine novel.

Besides the vibrant setting, the characters were detailed and intricate. My favorites were Iza and Creb, but I also liked Ayla herself, Brun, and Ooba (sp?). I liked how Iza embraced Ayla and was thoughtful enough to pass along the medicine woman trade, trying to think of Ayla's future. Iza was a warm, loving, kind-hearted, strong woman. Creb was fantastic. I thought he was sweet and kind, a good father-figure for Ayla, and I loved the comparisons between him and Ayla and between him and Ayla's son, Dirk. Ayla was a great character; she grows so much throughout the book. She tries to find her place in the clan; she is constantly testing the boundaries, but not because she is always defiant. Ayla is just not Clan; she is of the Others, and that breeding comes through. I liked the differences that she accented between Clan and Others: speech, crying, differences in body shape (I really liked how the Clan had a different perception of beauty). There were a few times when she (or her son) got really close to that Mary Sue line--the amount of times she breaks rules and is able to keep from being killed is pretty astonishing. However, I think Ayla did have enough faults, and was legitimately punished enough that I didn't focus on it too much. (I wonder, though, how far it is into the series before her turn to Mary Sue-ism comes is complete.) Brun was a great strong leader; he listened to his people, but wasn't afraid of action, afraid of punishment. And Ooba became such a sweet, loving sister to Ayla. I couldn't help but think of me and my sister when I read about the two.

The story meanders along Ayla's life, her struggles to become Clan, and her tension with Broud. I loved how she learned to hunt with a sling, and I liked how she became a good medicine woman, how she would drop everything to try to save someone's life. I got to learn so much in this book, my mind was bent to new depths--what would life be like living in a cave? What was the world like before?

If anything about the story bugged me, it would be the sudden departures into talking about mixing medicines. As I said above, I loved the research Auel put into this book; that said, inserting several passages ONLY to show what plants mixed with what roots would make a cure for this ailment got old. Fast. Fortunately, there were not TOO many of these scenes, but there were enough to be noteworthy.

Also, there is quite a bit of violence/abuse in this novel. Women are basically treated like property. Men can beat women and be completely justified--this happens to Ayla quite a few times in the book. Men also can force a woman to have sex whenever the desire hits them--even if the woman is not their wife. Again, this happens to Ayla quite a bit, in a rather uncomfortable rape montage (nothing is too graphic, however). While I am sure this is more realistic than having Clan women burning their bras (or whatever they would have used for bras), it is not for everyone and was rather uncomfortable at times to listen to. Sometimes, I wanted to smack some sense into these Clan men--how dare you treat someone like that! Being female does NOT mean being stupid and being unable to think for yourself! Ultimately, I appreciated how Auel did NOT resort to writing the Clan as if they were wise, with modern sensibilities about feminism...but I still hated the abuse.

I honestly cannot wait to start reading the next book. I am desperate to know what happens to Ayla...does she meet up with her people? Does she find a mate? I've read enough reviews to know some of the answers to my questions, but that doesn't make me any less eager to read for myself. I greatly enjoyed reading this prehistoric journey, and I definitely recommend--with the caveat that there is some abuse/violence to be on the lookout for.

Suddenly, with a magician's flourish, he produced a skull. He held it high over his head with his strong left arm and turned slowly around in a complete circle so each man could see the large, distinctive, high-domed shape. The men stared at the cave bear's skull glowing whitely in the flickering light of the torches.

Contemporary anthropology can be pretty confusing, and science may have disproved some of what’s on display here, but this novel does feel like it was well researched at any rate, so let’s leave it at that. It’s still just a story, and an historical-fantasy at that.

“The child has a totem, a strong totem. We just don't know what it is.”

And we all know the story by now.
Cro-Magnon girl is orphaned by earthquake and is adopted by Neanderthal clan: drama and intrigue follows. It’s no surprise that emphasis is laid on the differences, and perceived differences, between H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens.

(I found the “Caveman” names quite typical, and amusing: Eg. Grod, Droog, Groob, Crug and for obvious reasons, Durc.)

This book was pretty huge back in its day. It also seems to be provoking all kinds of debate. The reviews on goodreads alone make for interesting reading, and more than a little contradiction.
Is the book racist? Is the book sexist? Is the book factually correct?

More to the point: is the book any good?

He had a sudden understanding of the gulf between the mind of this girl and his own, and it shook him.

The intimacies of clan interaction does have a terrifically epic backdrop in prehistoric (paleolithic) Europe and something that the author conveys quite well is the solitude; you really do get the idea that there are not many people around. However, expect a bit of an infodump: there are pages and pages of depictions of plants and their medicinal properties. If you can skip-read over these, you’ll read the book in half the time I did (I compulsively read everything).

She was part of nature's new experiment, and though she tried to model herself after the women of the clan, it was only an overlay, a facade only culture-deep, assumed for the sake of survival.

It’s an interesting story, but also somewhat cyclical, with some events seemingly repeated in some form or other throughout the story. Season follows season; day to day depictions of paleolithic Neanderthal life serving as backdrop for the pissing contest between Ayla and Broud; wash, rinse, repeat.

Something that reviewers seem to be skirting around is the rape scene depicted in the story. I found it fairly brutal, given the context (the victim is a 10-year girl), even if it does serve to move the story along. I would have expected the author to exhibit a modicum of sensitivity in the prose, but alas. The reason I’m mentioning this incident specifically is because it did influence my reading experience. Perhaps this is the idea, to set a more sinister tone for the rest of the novel.

We don't know why your totem has led you to follow that ancient path, but we cannot deny the Spirit of the Cave Lion; it must be allowed.

In the end, it’s testament to the staying power of the novel that I still enjoyed it despite its shortcomings. With a tweak here and an edit there it could have been great; as it is it’s still very good.

3.5 Stars
Read as part of the must-read agreement with my wife – 2015

This was a very interesting novel. This is set during the late Pleistocene epoch and geographically seems to be set in the crimean peninsula, and speculates on Neanderthal culture and their interactions with Early Modern Humans.

The plot is quite simple, Ayla is an orphaned 5 year old Cro-Magnon girl who gets adopted by a Neanderthal clan, clan of the cave bear. The rest of the story follows her life in the clan, and her struggle to fit in.

We know very little about Neanderthals and their lives, but a lot of evidence is being unearthed lately which point towards a sophisticated culture for the Neanderthals. They used tools, personal ornaments and had burial customs. They presence of red ochre in their graves points towards the notion that they must have had some kind of spirituality. It is clear that the author did a lot of research and she managed to construct a very interesting culture for the Neanderthals. She gives them a genetic memory and a very interesting religion. Ayla is a wonderful character, and the hierarchical clan structure with women playing a secondary role gives her a lot of depth.

The biggest problem with the novel is the author's tendency to slip into long-winded descriptions that are totally incongruent with the narrative.