The Fulfillment by LaVyrle Spencer

The FulfillmentI first read The Fulfillment in 2008, although it was originally published in 1979. This was a completely different plot from any romance novel I had read at the time – and I still find it unique. There are 3 protagonists, Jonathan Gray, his wife Mary and his brother Aaron. When the Gray brothers’ parents were killed, the will stipulated that the house went to Aaron, and the farmland to Jonathan. Mary was from Chicago, and came to their rural Midwest area to visit her aunt when she met and then married Jonathan.

Jonathan and Mary and Aaron share the house and the land and its bounty. Seven years have passed since Mary and Jonathan wed – and as the story opens it’s 1910, and we learn that Jonathan is probably sterile from childhood mumps, and has decided after much pondering to ask Aaron to sire a child for him with Mary.

I had a hard time getting into Jonathan’s head in this book when I first read it. The Gray brothers are farmers, and their lives revolve around growing and being bountiful – bringing new crops to bear every season, and yet neither one has yet produced an heir. Jonathan spent a lot of time thinking about having a son, and has reconciled himself to the necessity of asking Aaron to be the father. Mary does wish for a child, but not obsessively so, and has been following the advice of a doctor to have sex when she is most likely to be fertile, to no avail. She loves Jonathan, however, and is appalled when he announces his intentions to her and Aaron.

Aaron is also appalled – he had been courting Priscilla, a neighbor, but was reluctant to marry her because he doesn’t really love her. In fact, he recently told her he wasn’t ready for commitment, and she broke up with him. However, he can’t believe what Jonathan has asked him to do – how could he sleep with his brother’s wife? In his frustration, he goes back to Priscilla, but she won’t have him back. And now that Jonathan has brought the proverbial elephant into the room, it’s all Aaron can think about – and Aaron realizes there is an attraction between him and Mary.

To further complicate matters, Mary also becomes acutely aware of her relationships with each brother. Jonathan, her husband and lover, isn’t very attentive. He doesn’t notice when she dresses up for him. He doesn’t offer courtesies and help. But Aaron does. They all go to a dance together, and somehow Jonathan disappears and Aaron ends up dancing with Mary, confusing both their feelings for the other even more.

Jonathan has another dream: to start a cattle ranch, raising Angus cattle instead of farming the land. He has been researching this for a while, and plans a trip out of town to buy a bull at a time when neither Mary nor Aaron can accompany him. It seems his trip is planned to accomplish both his goals: buy his bull and throw Mary and Aaron together to conceive a child. Everything in his life is about procreation, and when he can’t do it himself, he’ll just see that it gets done under his control.

This isn’t the first Spencer book I have read with a story line for which there can be no completely happy ending for everyone. In Twice Loved, the hero returns from 5 years at sea to discover he’s been declared dead and his best friend has married his wife. In Home Song, the hero, married 18 years, learns for the first time he fathered a child with another woman 1 week before his marriage to his then-pregnant bride, so now he has 2 sons the same age. Home Song was easier to resolve than Twice Loved, but still brought a lot of pain and anguish to so many people. But in The Fulfillment, the motivation I couldn’t comprehend was Jonathan’s. Was he simple? Deluded? At one point, Aaron says to him that he (Aaron) would kill any man who slept with his wife. But Jonathan keeps his eyes on the prize – the end justifies the means for him. If he feels anything negative at all, Spencer doesn’t show us.

Spencer’s writing is wonderful, as always, and I enjoyed the journey. Will Damron did a fine job of narrating this piece of Americana, and fleshed out Jonathan’s character a little better than I had done in reading the first time. His Jonathan wasn’t simple or deluded, but determined to have his life go a certain way – he wanted to start raising cattle, and he wanted a son, and accomplishing those 2 goals became his mission in life. He differentiated the brothers very well, with Jonathan having a very low bass, and Aaron more in the baritone range. His female voices bothered me a little at first, although I grew accustomed. He did raise the pitch for women, and it wasn’t really an awful falsetto, but it bordered on cartoony; his children’s voices were similar. Eventually I settled into a rhythm with Damron, however, and allowed the prose to take center stage. His delivery and pacing are very good, and although the text referred to the Bohemians in the area, he didn’t give anyone a particular accent, not even the familiar flat A of Midwestern America.

I know LaVyrle Spencer fans will enjoy having this story brought to audio – although I don’t love all of her books equally, many of them are in my all-time favorite list, including Morning Glory which unabridged audio narrated by Kate Forbes is unfortunately tied up in what must be a legal/contractual issue and is not scheduled for reissue any time soon. Another favorite of mine set in the early 20th century is That Camden Summer, and the unabridged recording with David Dukes narrating is also no longer easily available (you can get the abridged version at Audible). The Fulfillment is Spencer’s first book, and it’s said that, like Jonathan, Spencer had a mission, which was to make a certain amount of money publishing her work, and when she reached that goal, she retired from writing! It’s a shame because her storytelling and writing are often excellent, and many have already stood the test of time and will no doubt be around as classics in years to come.

NOTE: There is a HEA, in case you were wondering; also, trigger warning – adultery.

Melinda


Narration: B-

Book Content: A

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in, but at the tame end

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Harper Audio

 



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