Life Updates and Review of Judy Blume’s Book, Forever

by Stephanie McCarthy

Book cover of Katherine and Michael’s legs and bare feet on white bed. He’s in bell-bottom jeans & her toenails are painted.
April, 2007 book cover of Judy Blume’s Forever, with the main characters, Katherine and Michael, lying
 together on on a bed.

After abandoning this blog for a little over a year, I’m ba-ack. This blogging business is a lot harder than I thought it would be, especially when it comes to making money from it. It was a busy time. Last spring, I completed my RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) studies. Then, in late September, I got married to my husband, who I’ve been with for 11 years. He's actually the one who suggested that I breathe life back into this blog. Isn’t it great when the one you love is so supportive of what you do? I’ve started adding books I’ve read, especially ones from my childhood, to this revamped blog/rebranded blog. If you happen to like what I’m doing, feel free to go to the Subscribe section in the lefthand corner and hit the Follow button. Now, on to my first book review!

Forever by Judy Blume, $6.41 at AbeBooks
After meeting at a party, high school seniors Katherine and Michael become inseparable. Although they have a lot of sex, they do so responsibly. Michael even names his penis, Ralph, for Katherine as an icebreaker early on in one of their sexual encounters.

Michael is one of my favorite characters in literature and he puts Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye to shame. He’s honest, vulnerable, attractive, smart, and utterly endearing. I thought guys like this only existed in books till I was fortunate enough to meet my prince charming many years later. I always hoped that Judy Blume would revisit Michael in later books, like Barthe DeClements did with one of her main characters, Elsie, in some of her work.

Katherine disappoints me towards the end of the book. Michael deserves so much better and her avoidant and indecisive behavior is infuriating, causing her to come off as a bit of the easy lover that Phil Collins and Philip Bailey warn you about.

I also don’t like Theo, the 21-year-old creepy and predatory mustached guy who Katherine becomes very attracted to at tennis camp. Moreover, he comes across as a homewrecker when he keeps disparaging Katherine and Michael’s use of the word forever in their relationship.

Why does Katherine get her birth control pills from Planned Parenthood instead of from a regular gynecologist? Plus, she and her best friend, Erica, criticize their pregnant friend, Sybil, behind her back for choosing adoption over abortion. If it wasn’t for adoption, my husband and I would’ve missed out on raising our wonderful daughter. And I know there are many other parents who feel the same way. Recently, she approached us and told us she’s glad that her birth parents didn’t abort her because if they did, not only would she have missed out on life, but she would’ve also missed out on being raised by parents who did want her. I prefer it when authors don’t push a political agenda and ideology on their readers—especially on younger and more impressionable ones. 

Overall, it’s a very good book. The fact that writers are still discussing it and filmmakers are adapting it into a TV show 50 years later speaks volumes about the timelessness of the issues that Judy Blume addresses in her work.

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