The Inheritors - William Golding

William Golding's second novel, published in 1955, is about a small tribe of Neanderthals who witness the emergence of the intellectually superior but destructive Homo Sapiens. Golding's Neanderthals possess rudimentary speech, abstract thinking, which they call 'pictures', and a primitive religion. They communicate semi-telepathically, whilst pursuing a simple, animal-like existence. The story unfolds from the perspective of Lok, a young male in the tribe with very limited mental capabilities. After journeying up a waterfall to their Spring feeding grounds, they begin to witness signs of newcomers on the landscape and struggle to understand the significance of this new threat to their existence.

Due to the indirect description and bizarre, purposefully confused writing style, this book was incredibly difficult to read and a lot of the time I had no idea what was going on. Some pages would require a second reading to figure out what Golding was attempting to depict and no doubt this was aimed at instilling a sense of bewilderment in the reader synonymous with the sensations of Lok. The effect is certainly baffling, although infinitely more tedious than interesting. In the end I gave up struggling with meaning and just allowed the words to take me along. The death of innocence moral was not one I cared for greatly because it's as old and as hollow as time. Nature is good, civilisation is bad, and one big yawn for mankind.

Rating: 2/5