Foreword
In this candid portrait of a woman obsessed with what in America must be the ultimate sexual taboo incest authoress Faye Jackson spins a web that encompasses far more of what is the plight of all too many women. Incest bears an out-dated stigma. The roots of the taboo associated with it lie in a pragmatism that had been anachronistic since the advent of dependable birth control devices. But the authoress is dealing with a theme whose broad ramifications are far more subtle, the threats far more devious, than sex between blood relatives whatever their relationship might be. Though the incest must inevitably occur in this terse, realistic novel, the crux of the narration treats upon the unnatural alternatives to the "taboo", and it is to the authoress's credit that she has presented the desperate alternative gropings of the heroine, Katherine Beauchamp, in such a manner as to virtually minimize the impact of the taboo act itself when it is compared to the less healthy, less natural avenues she first pursues.
Miss Jackson presents her readers with an almost archetypal figure of a woman in what must be one of womanhood's most desperate states: beautiful, full of life, in her sexual prime and hopelessly unfulfilled. Juxtaposed against this recognizable figure is her opposite counterpart in the newer generation, her son's girlfriend, equally beautiful and fresh, liberal-minded and bursting with love sexually fulfilled at an age when Katherine Beauchamp scarcely was able to comprehend the existence of natural, healthy male-female relationships.
The complication which launches the series of episodes that carries Katherine to the very depths of depravity before she can emerge a whole woman, is another trait still all too common in even our contemporary society, Katherine's perverted channeling of what should have been her own natural sexual instincts into a twisted, possessive mother-love that makes it impossible for her to accept her son's natural and healthy relationship with a woman. She justifies her anger and indignation with the fact that her son is obviously having sex out of wedlock. What Katherine doesn't see, though it will not elude the reader, is that it is not the lack of a sanctimonious blessing, marriage, upon the act that offends her. It is the act itself, the fact of another woman being with her son.
This novel is not, however, a call to incest. Rather, the writer is making a plea ultimately for sexual freedom within the bounds of the marriage union, a plea for healthy and mutual relationships between man and wife. That is the heroine's final goal, however unconscious of this she might be during the bulk of this narration. It is unfortunate that Katherine Beauchamp must have sex with her son before she can have meaningful sex with her husband. Even more unfortunate is the gauntlet of depravity she must run before she ismentally and emotionally prepared to cope with her incestuous longings. But the ultimate catastrophe, which the American reader cannot fail to recognize, is the frustration and unhappiness of eighteen years of marriage without fulfillment which the heroine and her husband have endured.
For readers of Katherine Beauchamp's generation who recognize some aspects of her and her husband's plight in their personal situation, this factual novel is proof that it is not too late to make the changes that will lead to a fruitful relationship hopefully without going to the degrees to which the heroine was blindly driven. For younger married readers and single men or women the book can serve as a warning, can present them with an insight into some of the causes of the numerous "gaps" that have become indispensable terminology in any discussion of the ills of contemporary society.
It is with pride and gratitude that the publishers present authoress Faye Jackson's shockingly vivid and realistic book.
-The Publishers Sausalito, California January, 1972