The Inheritors (original 1955; edition 1963)

Golding's Neanderthals are insufferably innocent noble savage types who live in harmony with nature, refuse to kill animals for food and spend their time mooning around their Eden and generally being all touchy-feely and pathetic.

Homo Erectus is much more accurately drawn as a depraved and bloodthirsty carouser with a brainbox too big for his own good. The story really picks up when the humans come on the scene. Alas, too late.

Unfortunately I think Golding's execution of his admittedly brilliant idea is seriously flawed. There are a couple of stumbling blocks: trying to write from a plausible non-human viewpoint, and trying to write a story from the point of view of beings without language (or with only rudimentary language, it's not exactly clear). I suppose he deserves credit for trying. ( )

"...It seemed to end a little abruptly; I felt like I was just beginning to get to know the humans, and would have liked to know more about them, if not in further chapters, then perhaps in a sequel. Most people are probably only familiar with an earlier novel of Golding's, Lord of the Flies, since it seems to be a required reading staple in high schools across the country. I really enjoyed reading that one when I took senior English, and I'm not sure now why it took me so long to read something else of his. I definitely recommend this for something a little out of the ordinary on your reading list, especially since this is Golding's favorite of all his own work."

For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger!

http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2012/02/inheritors.html ( )

William Golding is best known for the enduring classic Lord of the Flies. However, he considered The Inheritors to be his best novel. I first read this book when I was in college. On rereading it, I find it to be an almost perfect book.

The novel is about a brief but disasterous encounter between a small group of Neanderthals and a small group of the more advanced Cro Magnon or Homo Sapiens. (There is some dispute about some of the anthropological aspects of this book, but these critics seem to forget this is a novel, with characters and a plot, not a textbook on human development.)

Most of the novel is narrated from the pov of Lok, one of the younger Neanderthal men, whose mate is Fa. (A final short chapter is narrated from the pov of the new people.) We are aware from the beginning that Lok is not as mentally sophisticated as Fa, although under the group's traditions, Lok will succeed to leadership of the group after the elder, Mal, dies.

The people are gentle, loving and peaceful. Instead of thinking or reading, they "see pictures," and they can communicate with each other nonverbally. They do not hunt, but gather their food, although they will eat meat if they come across an animal that is already dead. They are unable to make fire, and must keep their fire always alive. They have no tools or implements, and, for example, must carry water in their hands.

Into this innocence the "new ones" intrude. They have fire and weapons. They have fashioned boats, tools and other implements. They wear clothes and have alcohol. They are sometimes violent.

In narrating the novel, Golding presents things and events as these primitive people perceive them, and we may sometimes have difficulty determining what they are actually observing or experiencing. Here, for example, is the description of Lok's first encounter with one of the new ones; Lok is curious, the new one attacks him with a bow and arrow:

"The man had white bone things above his eyes and under his mouth so that his face was longer than a face should be. The man turned sideways in the bushes and looked at Lok along his shoulder. A stick rose upright and there was a lump of bone in the middle. Lok peered at the stick and the lump of bone and the small eyes in the bone things over the face. Suddenly Lok understood that the man was holding the stick out to him but neither he nor Lok could reach across the river. He would have laughed if it were not for the echo of the screaming in his head. The stick began to grow shorter at both ends. Then it shot out to full length again.
"The dead tree by Lok's ear acquired a voice.
"'Clop!'
"His ears twitched and he turned to the tree. By his face there had grown a twig; a twig that smelt of other, and of goose, and of the bitter berries that Lok's stomach told him he must not eat. This twig had a white bone at the end. There were hooks in the bone and sticky brown stuff hung in the crooks. His nose examined this stuff and did not like. He smelled along the shaft of the twig. The leaves on the twig were red feathers and reminded him of goose. He was lost in a generalized astonishment and excitement."

I loved this book and highly recommend it.

4 1/2 stars ( )

This looked like an interesting older novel that I had never read before. Frankly I had a hard time with it. It is fairly rare that I get confused within a story but that happened multiple times within this one. I found much of the story confusing and I ended unsatisfied. The story is primarily told from the point of view of a small group of neanderthals. There are eight of them when the story begins. I liked how we are just immersed in the thoughts and behaviors of this small tribe. The neanderthals are not depicted as terribly intelligent. They seem repelled by new things. The story is primarily told from the point of view of Lok, a younger male, but he seems rather stupid compared to the other neanderthals.

It seems that in addition to the ability to speak somewhat simply, the neanderthals here have a form of telepathy to aid the speech and to share pictures from their minds. This gift appears to be very strong sometimes and intermittent at others. They also have a very enhanced sense of smell that lets them create and re-create scenes in their mind. Much seems to be made of this mental picture-making, and frankly I became more than a bit confused at various times with what was going on. The neanderthals seem to rely on this as a sort of mental history book and reference manual, and share with each other, but it also seems to be a way for the groupthink to imagine things from clues and puzzle stuff out and make plans. The bothersome part to me is theorizing this type of telepathy that exists with the neanderthals. It was a major issue in the novel, but I found it very confusing and it spoiled the story for me somewhat. This imagined neanderthal culture really came to life for me otherwise. The storytelling was very hard to follow at times, as we try to see the world as a neanderthal and things do not always make sense, at least to me. There were also rapid action sequences that I simply could not follow. Some becomes clearer as the story progresses, but not all, as I imagine was the author's intent to keep us aware of this "alien" viewpoint. This is overall a sad story of a dying race. This book certainly tried to tell a story in a new way, but for me it failed mostly in the attempt.

There were parts of the ending I did not understand, and the rest of the end I didn''t like. I suppose it was just tough luck for the last neanderthals to have a run in with something like the cro-magnon version of Antony and Cleopatra. ( )

An interesting account of a group of Neanderthals encountering a Cro-Magnon tribe. Confusing, because you are trying to understand the story second hand, told by someone with a different way of thinking and different preconceptions (Lok). And you have to guess by implication what Fa has seen, but does not tell him.
Since Lok does not fully understand what he is watching, maybe it is not surprising I don't either. And I didn't always want to take the time reading it to stop, back track and make sense of it. Had to read a few other reviews to be sure of the ending.
Duly added to the mix of fact/fiction stuck in my head, gleaned from Clan of the Cave Bear and Stig of the Dump. ( )