Reindeer Moon

by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Book Overview

This novel talks about the ice-age, where a handful of human creations struggle to stay alive, and it is the power and wonder of this story that their struggle is our own.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395421128
• ISBN13: 9780395421123
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.

Customer Reviews

And you thought your life was stressful...

This is perhaps the best novel I have ever read in the prehistory genre, BAR NONE. The story telling is realistic to the point that this could easily have been a real-life account, with possible exception given to the supernatural elements. All of the characters are well developed and above all, easy to read emotionally. The story is essentially about people living their daily lives, but the author excels in imparting how stressful and brutal that life may have actually been in an ice-age culture and I found myself completely absorbed and unable put it down because of its intensity. I'm looking forward to reading its companion book "The Animal Wife".

Difference between this and Clan of the Cave bear

One thing, I thought the clan of the cavebear lacked, even though it was an excellent book, was the raw sensations of living in a primeval world. This book does give you this impression, and it is a lasting one. In this book, you are cold, and hungry and lost in a world full of predators. The brutality of each day is brought out to it's fullest, the emptiness of the space around you. The winters are freezing, and the summers are brief and fleeting and bittersweet. The relationships between the characters are for the most part, well done. The one between Yanan and her sister Meri was especially well done. In the beginning, Yanan looks at her as spoiled brat. Later on, in the journey home they bond rather well. The book demonstrates this to us and does not tell this to us. Another thing worth mentioning is how well Elizabeth Marshall Thomas writes the various animals that inhabit the tundra. You can almost see the mammoth storming across the plains and the yellow gleam of a wolf's eyes. Yanan, after she becomes a spirit, (she introduces herself as one in the beginning of the story) takes the form of various animals and their habits are well described and thought out. This is a story about death, but also about life, and what hasn't really changed after billions of years.

Reindeer Moon

An excellent book with strong research in all areas, from natural history to shamanism. Vividly described and "real"; told in a spare, effective voice. An especially good portrayal of an adolescent character. Far superior to any of the "Clan of the Cave Bear" books.

Stupendous, experientially and intellectually delicious

Simply one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. Easily the best invocation of what life may well have been like for our hunting and gathering ancestors, and a stupendous illustration of animistic modes of experience, and of the reciprocity between human beings and the living land. Brilliant insights into the sensorial worlds of other animals -- wolves, mammoths, and others -- as well as into mysteriously beautiful styles of thought and awareness still common among many indigenous, oral peoples. An anthropological and deeply ecological classic -- and yet its a novel! Its not forthose who like their nature sentimental and sweet, but if you care about the wild otherness so rapidly dissappearing from our world, don't miss this astonishing book.

Exceptional portrayal of another world view!

This book is so much more sophisticated than Clan of the Cave Bear, that it shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath! OK, OK, maybe I am a rabid fan, but I think I became one with good reason. If you are interested in other cultures and want to understand how someone very different from yourself might think, this is the book for you. Ms. Thomas' other books also put you into another world, another mind, whether she writes about humans, as in Animal Wife, or about animals, as in Tribe of Tiger and The Hidden Life of Dogs. Her command of English and her talent for eloquent understatement are wonderful to experience. If you are discerning and literate, you will adore her.