The Flowers of the Forest

The ending left me sagging. Was Anne really being realistic or was she the one who had been making believe, not Matthew? My sense was that Matthew knew exactly what he wanted, what he was getting into and would have accommodated Anne and her kids easily and warmly ito his life. Anne's sarcastic thought about Matthews's keeping the cushion that she assumed (!!!)had been stitched by his former love seemed petty and silly. Matthew did not strike me as a man who was mooning over some lost love. He was forthright and honest and involved in Today, not pining over yesterday. If that cusion had indeed been stitched by Carrie, he probably kept it out of habit, not because he was mourning his lost love. I was appalled that Anne dismissed Matthew and their dreams so completely, so coldly. Was it guilt? Did she feel that she didn't deserve such happiness when Duncan had had so little and died so sadly, while she was betraying him? Throughout the entire story I felt that Anne was doing an admirable job of addressing everyone's needs, including her own, as best as she could. And that she gave her needs merit. But at the ending----all my admiration for her crashed. Even though the jacket says "in the end they have all, in various ways, abandoned her," I feel that she abandoned hereself. Everyone except her acted in what they felt was their best interest: Janet (going back to Huddersfield), Charlie and Peter (heading out West), even Duncan (killing himself when he couldn't face yet another disaster). But what happened to Anne? Why did she not give herself some time? Why did she completely abandon her love for Matthew? Or could it be that she didn't love him, that she was fantasizing? Did I completely misread their relationship? I can see how Duncan's suicide would be horrible and that she would feel some guilt. But I'd have expected a woman like her to move on, to see that Duncan had his own problems, his own dreams, and they weren't hers--they never were. And yet it seems to me, she abandoned her own dreams just when she had a chance to fulfill them. Sad, very sad. Does anyone have any ideas? I know this is an old book--I found it in my mom and dad's basement. But the author is still writing and the book is still a good one. I just wish I could reconcile this ending. It has left me very low indeed. Lane