The Ending

As we come to a closing to the book Just the Three of Us by Julia Blackburn, she remembers of when her her parents passed away, her father died of a cerebral haemorrhage.  She has learned to accept that even if she did not have a normal upbringing and that it was based on broken relationships that they were still her parents and that they loved her, they had there odd ways of showing it but they still did. Her parents alcoholism and affairs with other women, and then her mother and her sexual tendencies. But by the end of the book, Julia has learned to forgive her parents for there bad parenting and has learned from them so she can apply this knowledge to her own parenting skills. 

Just the Three of us #5

In the novel Just the Three of Us by Julia Blackburn, where I am at in the novel the reader has already picked up on relationship issues as stated in previous blogs but that was when she was young. Julia also talks of the present and her relationship with her mother but not to the reader but to these "faxes to Herman". Herman was a boyfriend and when they broke up and is now her best friend. In a way the reader can sense that she still misses Herman for his guidance, she says;" "one part of me longs for my mothers forgiveness, the other part is hungry for retribution. What happened, happened. But Herman, you know that, you were there! Are you there now? Are you reading this fax as it grumbles its way through the machine on your table? can you tell me what to do?"(31). Here Julia Expresses her feelings about her mom to Herman and mentions "you were there! are you there now?" suggesting that he was there for her when they were a couple but was he there now for her that they were only friends? That she wants him but Julia also need him in a way. In her faxes to this mysterious man the reader can't help but wonder what had gone on between them that had caused there separation but still allow them to be so close as friends. could this perhaps be the work of her mother yet again?

Just the Three of us #4

In this memoir by Julia Blackburn the reader continues to see Julia's problems and where they came from. From the start of the book I remember thinking that it was her dad, her dad was mostly the main reason she had so many issues. Now that I am significantly farther in the book, I can see now that her mother is definitely the main reason. Her mother had problems herself and didn't try to hide them from her daughter. 

Right now in the book, Julia (as a adult) remembers back to the time when she was about to give birth herself to her first child, that her mom gave her a notebook that she had kept during her pregnancy with julia and throughout her childhood. Ones first though is; oh thats nice of her mother to do, give her a little heads up for what's to come right? No, in this book are accounts of her dreams, "In another dream she drowned the baby in the bathtub and then went to a party where she had a lot of fun"(44). This quote from her mothers notebook is not only creepy but also sad that she could think of her own baby that she created like that, but then it is no surprise because the reader can infer that the only reason why Julia's mother wanted a baby so bad(which she had) was to keep her marriage together, or to possibly make her husband love her more and keep him from being unfaithful. In the notebook that Julia is given, her mother writes just after Julia's 1st birthday about how she is really gonna take motherhood on she states, "Must quickly learn to master the problems of motherhood in the minimum of time, because I am not one of those silly women who make babies a full time job. I am an artist first and a mother second--only to fulfill myself as an artist" (45). Here this shows her mother's priorities as a mother and her work and is a clearly a unfit mother. what this must of felt for Julia to read was hard, not that she probably already had an idea that this is how she thought but to have the proof before her and that her mothers feelings had been this way since birth. Her mother didn't even get a chance to know her or give her the chance to be bad.