Earth's Children: The Moment of Truth

Eventually, Mom picked up one of my Earth's Children books. I'm pretty sure it was The Clan of the Cave Bear.

"This looks interesting," she said. "What is it about?"

I told her a (slightly edited) version of the storyline, hoping that she'd lose interest. She didn't. With bated breath, I waited for the inevitable lecture-chat that was bound to come after she read book one.

Except that there was no chat. I don't remember her saying anything about that book at all, other than to maybe wonder out loud how Ayla would fare living on her own.

Two.

"I wonder what it would be like to live a life completely free from the social expectations of others?" she said. "We need one another, but we also lose some of our freedom when we agree to live in social groups."

Three.

"I thought that the plot twist was completely unnecessary. We all know that everything going to work out in the end, so why spend so much time agonizing about it?"

Four.

"I wonder when book five will come out?"

My flabber was gasted. I thought for sure that Mom would be morally irked by something in the series -  their female deity, the sex scenes, the protagonists complete inability to wait until marriage to go on adventures or achieve personal growth. Or, you know, the sex scenes. Something.

When the fifth book came out and Mom's name finally drifted to the top of the list at the local library, we read it in shifts and occasionally attempted to guess where the plot was headed next.

I've invited Mom to write a postscript to this series. I don't know when she will be posting it, but I look forward to hearing her thoughts on the topics I've discussed over the last week or so.

(Photo credit.)