Kwani : The stranger was kind and did not share me with his friends. what's a little legs-opening between friends, eh ? Kwani : My new mate has met people and wants to trade with them. Let's "open my legs" and he'll protect me.
He has a crooked-foot but I don't care really.
Kwani : Oh I have found a man in that cave. Unfortunately, the Norse were only mentioned so that we understand Kwani's eyes color (you know, they came, they killed and they raped -hence the blue eyes some indians got-). The (very short) prologue was intriguing enough as it involved Norses (yay Norse people). Well worth reading.Because she is blue-eyed, 16 y/o Kwani is considered a witch by her people and is thrown out of her clan. They were complex, orderly and ultimately doomed to extinction. Neanderthals, in Auel’s vision, were not uncivilised brutes. Yet overall I found much to delight, with many nuances lingering long after the pages closed. The narrative is inundated with repetitive irritating details, one instance of such being the numerous descriptive passages detailing herbs and all their uses. The problem with the novel is its length. In dramatic contrast, Broud, heir apparent to the Clan Leader Brun, is one of the most hateful characters I’ve encountered in fiction. The medicine woman, Clan Leader and Clan magician are sensitive, well-rounded characters that you care about. It is to Auel’s credit that the Clan are characterised with great sympathy. Their leader chooses the latter, and the novel continues with Ayla’s life growing to maturity.Īlong the way, there are traumatic, harrowing events in Ayla’s life: events described with such power, you are left aching with compassion for an outsider, forced by circumstance, to live in an unfamiliar environment. The Clan must decide whether to abandon Ayla or adopt her. Ayla is not Neanderthal and known to the Clan only as one of the Others. On the point of death she is rescued by the medicine woman of a Neanderthal clan. Five years old and left to fend for herself, she wanders for days, eventually succumbing to malnutrition and thirst. The novel opens with Ayla, the heroine, caught in the throes of a terrifying earthquake. Offered the opportunity to review the Hodder re-issue, with its strikingly handsome new cover, I accepted with pleasure. I have long wanted to read Jean Auel’s acclaimed novel of Neanderthal society.
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