Review: Unusual Subject...Beutiful Story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2013
As soon as Ariah came on the scene, I was struck by the resemblance of this story to Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, and found myself hoping it wasn't going to have the same twisted irony of an ending. The more I read, the more anxious I got, so...I admit it!  I turned ahead and read the ending!  I just had to know beforetime. Then, with an easier mind, I returned to enjoying this great story.Bartholomew is portrayed as an honorable man, but one who's been frustrated in his emotional and physical outlets by his shrew of a wife who's made him the whipping-boy for her own shortcomings and unhappiness.  Ariah has been taught a skewed view of both physical and emotional love by her mother, and though she's promised to another man, when she meets Bartholomew she decides he fits the attributes her soulmate should have.  She's an innocent temptress, no more wishing to hurt her future husband than Bartholomew does, but the force between them is so overpowering they both reluctantly accept that sooner or later, it won't be denied.If one were to describe this simply as a novel of adultery, that would be condemning it out of hand.  It is about that, certainly, but it's an adultery justified by almost every character in the story.  With the exception of Pritchard, who starts off as a fairly callow character but does progress into something more, everyone in the town appears of Bart's attraction to Ariah, and they all encourage him to proceed.  There's a scene between Bart and Pritchard as he explains the facts of the wedding night to his virgin nephew after having just done the same to his equally virgin betrothed.  We have a man telling another how to make love to the woman he himself has fallen in love with, and the scene is both ironic and full of pathos. Bart does it, however, because he wishes both the participants to have as successful a marriage as possible, while he looks on from the sidelines of his own disastrous married life.There's plenty of descriptions of the Oregon coastline, its scenery, its wild weather, the beautiful birds...and touches of history about the lighthouse and the men who maintain it to help ships avoid the treacherous rocks.  Forever Mine is a story of treachery, Man against Nature, Man against his own nature, and a true love which has everything working against it, all brought to a satisfying conclusion by Ms. Raddon's deft touch.Another novel I recommend.