I recently watched some documentaries that put me in mind of Earth’s Children and, feeling nostalgic, I decided to go back and read the series.
But this time in audiobook and in English!
Last time my mum refused to buy me the English books, claiming they were too hard for me (the same thing happened with LOTR), and no matter how I tried to tell her I’d be fine, I had a dictionary, it was her money, so we did it her way.
And this is exactly the prehistoric history lesson I remember, and I immediately fell into the detailed and meandering descriptions of prehistoric life.
If you don’t enjoy being taken through a lot of detail like that, don’t read this series.
And if you do love that kind of thing, and do read this series, remember that it’s fiction.
Yes, yes, I know it feels very real and very much like history, and the author is famous for having put an extraordinary amount of research into these books.
But they’re still fiction.
And what I’ve noticed (I’m currently no further than chapter two of Clan of the Cave Bear) is that…
A) there’s some archaeological/anthropological data present which is a bit outdated and has been reviewed and revised since these books were published (starting in 1980), and…
B) the interpersonal relationships and social structure of the groups is fictional, because there is no way we can ever know exactly how these people thought, communicated or made decisions in daily life.
And this is fine. It’s fiction. It’s supposed to be made up.
But I don’t want you to walk away from this thinking that the patriarchal social construct the author used to tell the story of the Clan is in any way historically accurate.
In fact, that part reads very much like a criticism on modern day patriarchal structures in the way that it examines the station and opportunities of women.
Whether or not it is a criticism, the author made good use of more recent historical societal structures (ones that only rose post widespread agricultural adaptation) to tell her story.
Does it vilify the Neanderthal a bit? Yes, that’s what I mean when I say it’s perhaps showing its age and layering on modern social constructs.
But considering the depth of character in the individual members of the Clan and how their inner lives are explored, these books don’t aim to paint them in a negative light. Quite the contrary.
It’s simply that for a narrative arc to be effective, you have to construct tension, even if it means stretching the truth a bit.
Again, that’s what fiction is for.
Before this I had no idea you could write books like that.
This series set me on a path to becoming a fully-fledged smut writer.
I think I must have been about fourteen when I first read them, and I knew what sex was, how it worked, what it did, I’d seen it in film and I’d seen porn, but I don’t think I had a particularly nuanced emotional map of it beyond “sex exists and people like it”.
But as the highly immersive books in this series didn’t fade to black at the bedroom door (uh… tent flap?), journeying with the characters in their most intimate moments in such detail, had a profound effect on me.
Ah, the young, naive child I once was! Reading this series opened up new horizon’s in my imagination, and I was set on the path of becoming the writer I am today.
The big reason I picked up book one, Clan of the Cave Bear, was because it was a prehistoric fiction. I was sold just on that alone.
The second reason was the cover of the book praising the historical research and great historical detail that had gone into the writing of it.
I didn’t know the author, I didn’t know anything else about the books, but I took that paperback home with me.
It was also significant because I was shopping in the adult section of the bookshop, and I didn’t always find a lot of things I liked there.
I was still reading a lot of comics back then, and found more stuff to read in the younger sections.
So, this was also fancy, because it made me feel more grown up.
Anyway, I’m about 80% through Clan of the Cave Bear.
Have I gotten a little distracted on the way to the end of this book? Yes (by a few other books, rewatching Pose and a few movies), but I promise I’ll sum up my thoughts once I finish so stay tuned!
Want to get more out of reading books?
Grab this FREE guide on how to start a reading journal, complete with review templates, reading trackers and bingo sheets.
Understand yourself better as a reader, engage more with the books you read & make space for creative self-expression. Get it now!
“When Sasha Barrett gets bitten by a snake on a mission, her squad captain’s quick actions not only save her life, but also make her realise something she may have known all along…“
