Sattie, I agree with you in that this is the first book I have really related to. However, unlike you, I am not “freaked out” by my relation to this book. And, in this post I will explain why I related to this book, and why it does not bother me that I relate more to teenage chick lit than adult chick lit.
With all the other books we read I was frustrated by not relating to the book. I blamed this on not identifying with the protagonist. However, in Forever I do not necessarily identify with Katherine. I identify with what she is experiencing at the time. I realize now that my frustration in not relating to the main character was misplaced in all the other “chick-lit” books we read. My frustration should properly be placed on not relating to the experiences of these characters.
And, now realizing where my frustration is properly placed, it makes sense. I have not yet experienced the life of Lipstick Jungle, and I do not relate to the experiences of the protagonist in Nanny Diaries. People like to read either about a fantasy as a way to escape, or about something they can completely relate to about themselves and their past. No one wants an account of what they are doing in the future, or what they could have done with their life now or in the past. If a story is realistic, one wants to be able to put themselves inside it – a form of nostalgia and self-reflection.
I have to admit that as I was reading the last few chapters of this book, tears were streaming down my face. Why? Because I loved my senior-year-of-highschool boyfriend “forever.” And, then, we were separated my distance and we grew apart. Reading this book brought me back to a time that I had closed off from memory. It made me introspective about that time in my life. One other thing could be a major factor in relating to chick lit books: timing. Maybe this book really hit me because I am now in my senior year of college with a serious boyfriend. Maybe the parallel between the bridges and stepping stones in my life is what allowed me to identify with the experiences of Katherine.
I am glad that I relate to the situation of first love and the emotions that go along with it rather than to the angry-at-men, power-hungry, social-climbing events and emotions in many of the more recent adult chick lit books. Which brings up another intersting point: I relate more to the chick lit books of the 1970’s than to those of my generation. Am I frustrated with my generation’s values and seeking refuge from them? Or is this simply a book that can last through the ages? A book that plays on events and emotions that people of any age will be able to relate to?
The front cover of my book displays a sentence in very small writing underneath the large font of the title forever: ”Is there a difference between first love and true love?” I did not even notice this sentence until after finishing the book, but it perfectly sums up why I, and probably many others my age, relate to this book. This question is still, for me, a daunting one that is no way near answered. Was my first love so strong because it was true love? Or does all first love seem that strong? Is the desperateness that comes with first love a sign that this is not true love, or is that desperation exactly what makes true love? Is there really such thing as true love? Or is it all in the timing of things? Would Katherine and Michael have lasted a life time if it had not been bad timing? Would love #1 and I have lasted a lifetime if it was not for the timing? In writing Forever, Judy Blume found a reality of emotion that seems to cover a large range of ages and generations, and that has caught the hearts of its readers for now over 30 years. And, I believe the story is one that is so universal that it will continue do so.
- sunday style
