[.ca] Clan Of The Cave Bear, The (ISBN 1593351054)

From Amazon.com:
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

You will FALL IN LOVE with Auel's Ayla!!:
You must read this book! I highly, highly recommend it, along with the rest of the Earth Children's Series. You will love these books! Ayla is the strongest, most beautiful, lovable character I have ever confronted in literature. If I could meet any fictional character - it would without a doubt be Ayla. :-) The books are written beautifully as well. Auel does a fabulous job bringing the ice-age to life through breathtaking images and memorable characters. My ONLY complaint in this series is that the sex scenes are ridiculously "too perfect" - Augh. They could definitely be shorter, and there could be fewer of them. (You will not encounter these though, until the later books in the series, if you decide to read on.) I am a little hesitant for the final (6th) book to come out though... the 5th one ended on such a high note, I'm afraid to read on. Eeep.

Worth Reading More Than Once:
The Clan of the Cave Bear is so soundly researched any reader with an interest in prehistory will be swept along by this exciting adventure. Author Jean Auel went to great lengths to study for her Earth's Children Series of which The Clan of the Cave Bear is the first. She spent endless hours in the Multnomah County Library reading up on the ice age and prehistoric people. She even joined a survival class to experience what it's like to live in a cave, and learned how to make arrowheads out of Stone Age materials. Auel successfully paints a convincing prehistoric landscape with colorful language. Immersing one in the strikingly similar culture of the Neanderthal clan, illuminating and mirroring our values, and short comings with characters that remind us modern day humans of ourselves; making it easy to sympathize with the clans struggle to preserve their ridged, ancient traditions and way of life in an environment of constant change. Auel whisks the reader's imagination back to the dawn of humanity to journey along side the young human girl, Alya. Superbly rich in detail, this epic tale is simply one of compassion and survival of spirit. A clan of Neanderthals adopts Alya and initiates her as one of their own. She struggles to be accepted by her new family, but her defiant, independent and inquisitive human nature is a constant reminder that she doesn't belong. In their eyes she is an ugly duckling, and an undesirable mate to the men of the clan. She struggles to meld in with the other passive women, but Alya's warrior-like spirit rejects all attempts to dominate her true nature. She's continually at odds with the male leaders, and eventually her transgressions become unforgivable. In the end, Alya suffers their ultimate punishment.

Bringing character to life:
This is one of the best books I have read in quite a while. I simply could not stop reading it and ended up goin to bed really late. I lovedit. I loved the relationship that developped between Iza and Ayla and Creb and Ayla. I thought at certain points there were lengths and the author went into too much description which got lengthy, but it did not hinder the story. I liked how strong Ayla was. SHe wasn't like in so many others were the character is weak and faints at everything or prenteds to be strong but falls as son as a male coems to the rescue. Here, you could really feel that she truly did not need people to come to her rescue (except of course when she was five). The way the story was told made the characters almost real life and you felt deeply attached to them. They acted so much like poelpe you could identify with that it was sometimes hard to remember that they were in a book and not real life.

Ayla's Saga!:
I picked up this book randomly in the bookstore. The summary seemed very interesting, especially that it takes place in prehistoric era. I didn't know what I was about to read was going to get me hooked on. All the character came to life. The author had an amazing way of describing the language with gesture and emotions. She portrayed the culture of the Clan with delicacy and detail that will make you believe it happened that way. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

A Truly Great Book!:
I read this book when I was 14 years old, the story of Ayla and her struggles to fit in really struck home with me. Since then I have read it countless times and if you enjoy a truly well written book, this is for you.