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stephybara 's review for:
The Land of Painted Caves
by Jean M. Auel
750+ pages, and what happened? Well, we read the Mother's Song eighteen bazillion times ... and read people's long-winded introductions and recitations of titles ... and read descriptions of the sacred painted caves ... complete with people (and a wolf) relieving themselves in these sacred places. Lots of repetition (from previous books, from this book) and not much action. (Ayla's daughter had chicken pox for HALF A PARAGRAPH! Why even bother if it's clearly so unimportant?)
And the 'twist' of Jondalar being unfaithful with the ex-fiancee that he hates just came out of nowhere. Haven't we spent the last three books establishing that Ayla is the only one for him, and that he doesn't want to sleep with anyone else? (But it's OK because he has a lot of FEELINGS that he keeps bottled up to keep from being OVERWHELMED.) And Ayla's great Gift of Knowledge (that it takes men and women having sex to create babies) is going to lead to more monogamy (and control over the sexual behaviour of partners) which is the 'ideal' that Ayla and Jondalar were set up to be showing us all along.
This is supposed to be the last book (so the cover says) and yet nothing felt resolved to me.
Bah.
Edited to add: I do love cave paintings/carvings and I wish there had been some artists' renderings of some of the art she described.
If you want to see the painted caves she talks so much about, try these links:
-http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/index.html
and
-http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/chauvet_cave_art.php
And the 'twist' of Jondalar being unfaithful with the ex-fiancee that he hates just came out of nowhere. Haven't we spent the last three books establishing that Ayla is the only one for him, and that he doesn't want to sleep with anyone else? (But it's OK because he has a lot of FEELINGS that he keeps bottled up to keep from being OVERWHELMED.) And Ayla's great Gift of Knowledge (that it takes men and women having sex to create babies) is going to lead to more monogamy (and control over the sexual behaviour of partners) which is the 'ideal' that Ayla and Jondalar were set up to be showing us all along.
This is supposed to be the last book (so the cover says) and yet nothing felt resolved to me.
Bah.
Edited to add: I do love cave paintings/carvings and I wish there had been some artists' renderings of some of the art she described.
If you want to see the painted caves she talks so much about, try these links:
-http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/index.html
and
-http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/chauvet_cave_art.php