Forever by Judy Blume: a review

Like my mother said, you can't go back to just holding hands.

Forever, Judy Blume

Just thinking about Judy Blume puts me in a happy mood. Her young adult books do not shy away from the tough issues, something that has gotten her in some trouble with the sensors. Judy Blume lays it out, real talk. But that, more than anything, proves that what she has to say is something that the younger generation needs to hear.

She writes stories about young people, going through issues that young people face on a constant basis. Reading about it, though? How scandalous! 





The story is a simple one: Katherine and Michael meet, fall in love, and embark on a sexual relationship.

The origin of this story is pretty fantastic:
Judy says: This book was first published in 1975. My daughter Randy asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die. She had read several novels about teenagers in love. If they had sex the girl was always punished—an unplanned pregnancy, a hasty trip to a relative in another state, a grisly abortion (illegal in the U.S. until the 1970's), sometimes even death. Lies. Secrets. At least one life ruined. Girls in these books had no sexual feelings and boys had no feelings other than sexual. Neither took responsibility for their actions. I wanted to present another kind of story—one in which two seniors in high school fall in love, decide together to have sex, and act responsibly. ((SOURCE))

J. Courtney Sullivan over at NPR has a great piece on the book and how it has some really great feminist points. 

But I found some interesting opinions while browsing through the goodreads.com page for the book. A lot of readers found the story, and Michael's behavior, and Katherine's passivity alarming.

And to that, I say, you go readers! You tease out these issues and you problematize the crap out of it! I'm sure Judy would be delighted with the critical thinking occuring up in those threads.