Clan of the Cave Bear

Whew…trying to find my train of thought for my first post in this bloggy book club…looking, looking, looking. Still looking! It wasn’t until I read another bloggers review, (The Memoirs of a Mother’s intro to Water for Elephants) that the train started to take off!

“My favorite books are like old friends, I’ve read and reread them over and over…”

And there lies my muse for this month’s review.

When I decided to join Mrs Readalot in her book club blog, I had just purchased the latest and final (sniff, sniff) Jean Auel book, “The Land of Painted Caves”. However, it has been YEARS since I’ve picked up any of the Earth Children books, probably not since the last book was published so I decided I’d better start back at the beginning before devouring the end. I was already reacquainting myself with Ayla and decided to see the book through rather than shift over to something else.

As I think back to the first time I was introduced to this old friend, it was for my 20^th birthday and a boyfriend’s mother handed me a bulging gift bag. Inside I met Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and the Earth Children’s series. She felt that her friends could also become my friends. How insightful she was handing me these treasures that are still with me today at 34. These friends promptly moved with me from Central California to Sonoma County and within a few weeks, comforted me in the wee hours of the night as my relationship fell apart and I was all alone, left to find my way to university and new friends. I cried with Ayla as her Clan cursed her not once, but twice. As she learned to survive on her own, I too learned to survive without the security of that long-term relationship. As Ayla realized her self worth, I found my own self worth leading me to new friendships. This quote says it all for me and Ayla’s story:

In Ayla's story readers find what very well may be the story of human survival, for it is by wit, instinct, adaptation, and gathering knowledge that Ayla thrives among a people who are not like her, in a society that sees her as strange, in a world where elements, animals, and the enmity of others make surviving each day a challenge (http://www.jeanauel.com/books.php).

My life has many parallel experiences, most recently leaving the USA for NZ alone to start a life here not sure what to expect. I’ve discovered things within myself I never thought possible. Things that only hard times, life changing experiences, have forced me to notice about myself.