bibliodragon (
bibliodragon) wrote2009-12-28 02:24 pm
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Book Review: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel
The prose is clunky, the author prone to info-dumping, the point of view bounces about too much for my taste, the antagonist has very little dimension and the protagonist definitely ticks a number of Mary Sue boxes, yet once I got into it I found it quite readable. The sheer amount of research that has gone into this and knowledge on display is impressive, even if at times the actual story has just been tacked on this. And while Ayla would be pegged a Mary Sue were this fanfic, she is a relatively inoffensive one; naive and kind and smart and good and thinking she is ugly when not, but her actions doesn't induce any real dissonance with this, and with an oppressive patriarchal society it is easy to root for her. The death of her adoptive mother actually managed to be quite touching, especially when her description gives the impression of an old woman and then the revealing of her actual age of 26, same age as me.
Though it also triggered that latent BSG finale rage as well (how the hell is that a happy ending for them Ron Moore, how? Grr!)