Reviews

Did Neanderthals interact with our ancient ancestors? What would contact be like? What would be the results? How would that have been like from the Neanderthals point of view? The impossibility of ever having actual verifiable answers to these questions does not deter William Golding from tackling them all.

The most interesting aspect of this book is that it is mostly and almost entirely told from the perspective of a Neanderthal. Golding's Neanderthals have a different culture, different speech, and different thought pattern from us. They are unable to recognize human inventions for what the different tools they are and can only describe them in the world of nature that they live in. As a result, our Neanderthal guide, Lok, through this encounter is mostly confused throughout the entire novel. This requires the reader to pick up on subtle clues and translate these clues and Lok's observations into a coherent narrative.

This was Golding's second novel, written after the Lord of the Flies. All ready, we see him honing his writing skills and stepping out of a writer's comfort zone while at the same time inviting the reader to do so as well. Together, writer and reader are embarking to understand the perspective of a cognizant being that they could never hope to understand. Of course, such an exercise prepares us to tackle the more practical exercise of understanding and emphasizing with other human cultures. And upon further reflection, we will find that the conflict between cultures is probably not that different from Golding's fiction of pre-historic men coming into contact with our genetic ancestors.

kilcannon's review against another edition

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3.0

The attempt to capture the development of language and human cognition was admirable, but it may be a failed experiment. Action was frequently difficult to follow as a result. Still interesting.

ste3ve_b1rd's review against another edition

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5.0

I am in awe of this book, Golding's craft, and his work in general (I have also read "Lord of the Flies" and "Darkness Visible"). The writing itself, whatever one thinks of the plot, is transcendent. I am impressed by what must have been prodigious research on Golding’s part to gain insight in the world of the Neanderthals, about whose specific reality modern man can only speculate. Whatever the Neanderthals lacked in intellectual capability, they more than made up for in their ability to use their senses, especially that of smell. As well as their possible telekinetic activity, which would have been unencumbered by more advanced intellectual processes. Golding's Neanderthals have an intuitive grasp of their world that is lacking in the modern human; on the other hand, the Neanderthals also live more wholly at the mercy of "Oa" (Mother Earth). The innocence of the Neanderthals is endearing, the "new people" Homo sapiens are dangerous and menacing. I felt compassion for the Neanderthals, and contempt for "the new people". The emotion that binds both species together is fear; -IE- Homo sapiens refer to the Neanderthals as "devils"; Fa tells Lok that “the new people are frightened of the air”.

The prose within "The Inheritors" is highly poetic; Golding paints an intricate portrait of a primeval landscape, such as our planet will probably never experience again; this description in itself adds to the atmosphere of suspense the author creates in this novel. It is not just that landscape in itself that is impressionable, but also how it is perceived by the Neanderthals and their "mind-dream-pictures"; -IE- the heightened colors seen by Lok during his hangover from the honey-drink. Golding shrouds his worlds in mystery to create a background of heightened effect, which becomes an integral part of the story; Richard Wagner used a similar technique by employing the orchestra as an additional "voice" in “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. One of the major themes of this book focuses on the evolution of innocence into corruption; a problem that unfortunately still exists in humans today. Another theme is that of the Machiavellian nature of mankind as a whole, specifically in how that behaviour was starting to evolve in Golding's portrait of Homo sapiens. I actually think this work is more engaging than the more commercially accessible LOTF (and certainly more so than the experimental-yet-inconsistent "Darkness Visible”). Golding is a recent discovery of mine, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work.