…everything was so frozen in time they were iced with a thick caramel layer of glistening stalagmitic frosting.
This eye-roll-inducing phrase is the kind of writing I would expect from a novice writer, not a best-selling author penning the ultimate volume in a globally successful series. Unfortunately, this is an except from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, the (supposed?) final installment in her Earth’s Children series, which began with Clan of the Cave Bear.
My first clue that this book was sub-par: At 757 pages, it’s a long book to be sure, but it took me more than a week to finish it. Anyone who knows me knows that I can tear through a 700-page book in a few days’ time, if the book is well-written. The Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon, for instance, has volumes that clock it at over 1,000 pages, yet I can whip through those with ease. Why? Compelling writing.
There is nothing compelling about Painted Caves. It reads as little more than an uneventful travelogue for the first two-thirds. To save time, I recommend reading only the final 100 or so pages. You won’t miss anything.
Here are some of the problems Auel has, evidently, failed to overcome in her storied career (yes, pun. I know.).
- Repetition – At a certain point in my reading, I started simply skipping portions of the book because it rehashed information already provided at length elsewhere. IE, Ayla is a foreigner with an exotic accent. Or, Ayla and Jondalar took a long Journey to return to his home. With each new individual encountered, Auel felt the need to mention these facts. The worst part was that it was nearly verbatim every time, using terms like foreign, exotic, well-spoken, etc., ad nauseum.
- Lack of conflict – There’s a good reason I suggest reading only the last 100 pages of Painted Caves. Nothing happens in the first 600+ pages. Nothing! Oh, the characters visit a few Sacred Sites and meet some new people, but there is no conflict. No tension. Not until the very end of the book. Conflict is hinted at, but every time Auel gets close to creating a tenuous event, she skirts or glosses over the potential issue. Why? She goes to the trouble of mentioning characters that hate Ayla for various reasons, but beyond a menacing glare, they do nothing about it. NOTHING.
- Too easy – This goes along with the missing conflict. Any time a difficult situation is encountered, it is remedied with practically a snap of the fingers. Given the time period and setting of all of the Earth’s Children novels, it is impossible to believe that difficulties could be overcome with nary a thought.
- Taking the reader out of the story – Someone forgot to mention to Auel that this is a novel, not an archeological textbook. In any historical novel, it is important to introduce facts of the era to give the story the ring of authenticity. However, these facts must be related to the characters to be considered interesting, and to serve the story. “In later years,” and similar phrasing takes a reader completely out of a story, particularly one that is so difficult to become engrossed in in the first place. As readers, we don’t need to know what geographical changes will occur dozens of generations after the story at hand. Nor do we need lengthy accounts of climatic shifts over the thousands of years before the characters exist. By the same token, there is no need to painstakingly, ritualistically list and describe the images painted on the cave walls (hence the title) of the Sacred Sites. This is particularly true given that Auel never really shares what makes these places sacred, and, none of the questions raised are answered, even those asked by the characters! The most common response? “I don’t know.”
- Unnatural dialogue – This goes beyond just the conversations, but to the narrative as a whole. The writing itself was very stilted and mired in detail. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. I’m not sure there was a forest.
- No ending – Supposedly, this is the conclusion of the Earth’s Children series. However, Auel fails to wrap up the loose ends that I can’t be the only one to wonder about. Ostensibly, the entire book is meant to deal with Ayla’s efforts to become Zelandoni, a spirit woman. And while she does join their ranks, no information is given about how she progresses, whether she is promoted to the One Who is First, whether she and Jondalar have another child, etc. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, there’s another addition to the Earth’s Children series.
Okay, I could probably go on and list another handful of issues I had while reading this book. It’s been several years since I read Clan of the Cave Bear and its sequels, but I certainly don’t recall them being so difficult to enjoy, with such stilted writing. So, I highly recommend going back and reading the other books in the series. But, skip The Land of Painted Caves. Or, at least, the first 600 and some-odd pages.