Forever...Judy Blume
Originally published 1975
This edition: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (2007), Paperback (ISBN 1416953914 / 9781416953913)
Fiction (YA), 208 pages
Source: personal copy (purchased)
Reason for Reading: Re-read for Banned Books Week 2010
Opening Lines: "Sybil Davison has a genius IQ and has been laid by at least six different guys. She told me so herself, the last time she was visiting her cousin, Erica, who is my good friend. Erica says this is because of Sybil's fat problem and her need to feel loved - the getting laid part, that is. The genius IQ is just luck or genes or something."
Book Description: The saga of Katherine's and Michael's love is a joyous one, filled with all the wonder of "the first time." They meet on New Year's Eve and become completely involved with each other. It's an idyllic affair—until they're separated that summer... (Follow that link for more information and enlightenment on how this novel came to be written.)
Comments: It's pretty obvious early on just why this book has been challenged or banned so many times - it's, quite frankly, the sex, and this novel is quite frank about sex, specifically as it concerns teenagers. Forever... is a novel about a first-love relationship, and writing about that without factoring in sex would be, frankly, dishonest. Even in these days of "abstinence-only" sex education, sex is going to be an issue in teens' relationships; at the very least, there will be conversations about why they're not going to have it or how far they'll go with each other without actually having it.
I first read Forever... just a few years after its original publication (plus a few more times after that), and I think it was very influential for women of my generation. At the time, it seemed like one of the most "adult" young-adult books I'd ever read, and not just because of its subject matter (frank, yes, but all things considered, not overly graphic); it didn't shy away from the complexities, it didn't talk down to its readers, and it's one of the first books I remember reading that didn't have a neatly tied-up ending (which has become something I appreciate in novels, most of the time).
Given my prior relationship with the book, I'm finding it difficult to be objective about how it's held up over time; enough of it has stayed with me that reading it again was a bit of a time-travel experience, and may have made it feel more current and relevant than it really is. And to be honest, there are some aspects that seem a bit dated. But the central themes of the book still seem to matter: sex and emotion are tied together, and early sexual experiences ideally happen within a loving relationship; the people in the relationship need to communicate openly and not play power games with each other; becoming sexually involved is an adult-level decision, and an adult level of responsibility is attached; there's more to an adult relationship than sex - assuming that the course of your life is set forever by the time you're eighteen is a risky proposition, because you may not really be ready for the rest of it yet. (Learn that one the hard way, I did.)
Having said that, there were things in the writing itself that I don't think I even noticed as a younger reader, but got to me on this reading. There are aspects of the novel I still appreciate - Katherine's relationship with her parents, the mostly non-judgmental attitudes, the matter-of-fact approach to sex and contraception ("safe sex" meant different things in the pre-HIV days when this book was originally written). However, while Blume's tracing of the trajectory of Katherine and Michael's relationship is convincing, I didn't really feel that the characters themselves were all that developed, and the excessive use of ellipses in the dialogue just irritated me. (Granted, I'm an offender in that manner sometimes myself, and I know people tend to pause when they're talking; but I don't know if it's necessary to convey that in writing their talking.) And seriously, has any guy ever given his penis a first name of its own? "Mr. Happy" seems to be good enough for most of them...
I think that Forever... is still an important book, and I'm glad I revisited it during Banned Books Week. I think it's a modern classic that deserves continued reading, and I think that it will continue to be banned and challenged for as long as it's around.
Rating: 3.5/5
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