What’s up with you stranger?
This is a love story with a mystery at its center, a paranormal mystery. Why can Ashley Easton speak French so well? Why can she ride a horse so well, after only a few weeks? Who is the mysterious young man she meets at the dressage competition and why is he so attractive? a third time to die by George A. Bernstein is a love story and a mystery all rolled into one. It uses the concept of reincarnation as an interesting plot device.
Our first look at Ashley Easton is of a woman rescuing a horse:
“Hey, put that down!” With a harsh cry, she struck the door with the side of the pitchfork. (Bernstein, p. 25)
The horse has always represented passion and desire in literature, and A 3rd Time to Die is no exception. Ashley’s new horse brings excitement and energy into her life and allows a new relationship to blossom. Ashley is revitalized and energized by rescuing the horse; she also highlights how she has changed her life. Ashley is an attractive character who knows what she’s thinking and is financially independent. She feels a lot, but it takes a long time to act on these feelings: this is the challenge of Ashley Easton. The reader feels an occasional sense of frustration and is delighted that she is finally getting going.
Ashley’s lover, Craig Thornton, is charming and is everything Ashley needs and wants – he is the polar opposite of Ashley’s husband Keith and is charming, interesting, fascinated by Ashley, shares her interests and cares. Their relationship changes over time, and as they learn more about each other, their characters develop in surprising and fascinating ways. However, a personal glitch or two might have helped make Craig more real.
Craig Thornton is also an interesting contrast to Ashley because his marriage is falling apart, but it’s not his fault: his wife is the one cheating. Bernstein thus establishes interesting parallels and contrasts in the relationships. The two spouses, Keith and Toni, are not likeable characters. Keith is a husband totally lost in the relationship: he ignores the children and takes a mistress. He would have preferred a little more nuance to these spouses to add more real personality complexity: Keith doesn’t help with the kids, he doesn’t like anything about his wife anymore, he’s obnoxious in his other relationships; but he has no redeeming quality. He’s a little too mean to be human. He looks like he has no saving grace: I know Craig is charming, but Keith must have been fine at some point.
The novel examines relationships. The men and women in a third time to die You are not looking for just anyone but someone special. In the visionary past-life flashback of the 1895 opening, Charles sees in Victoria, a woman who is “passionate, sensual, and stubborn” (Bernstein, p. 6). He loves her for these qualities, and Ashley and Craig also look for very special traits.
Soulmates are important in this novel: people click and realize they are meant to be together. The Australian Psychological Society website says that: “newer fields of psychology, especially transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology, are taking seriously the holistic notion of human beings as composed of mind, body and soul. These These fields propose that people are spiritual beings living a human life that extends beyond our mundane existence and skin-encapsulated ego to include direct experience of the environment and the cosmos.They recognize the importance of integrating spiritual reality with physical and mental, that spirituality is only a part of the whole”. (Australian Psychological Society website. Transpersonal Psychology) The complications of soul mates and reincarnation that need to be overcome make for a really interesting plot device in this novel. The question of whether Ashley and Craig will outlive their love, and who is against them and intent on harming them is a passionate question.
The last main character is the psychologist Dr. Feldman. He’s an interesting character: he’s helpful, but indecisive, and eventual insights and understandings of him moved the plot forward. Feldman is one of Joseph Campbell’s assistants. In monomyth, Campbell explains that: “For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero’s journey is with a protective figure (often an old lady or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the forces of the dragon in question. pass. What such a figure represents is the benign and protective power of fate.” (Wikipedia. monomyth) Feldman helps Ashley and Craig understand what is happening. This relationship is a satisfying aspect of the novel.
Ashley and Craig share a love of horseback riding. As has been pointed out, the horse has always represented strong emotions and passionate desires in literature and this is also true in a third time to die. Since DH Lawrence, the horse has been a basic representation of sexuality, freedom and power. Ashley’s horse in the novel represents all the freedom of her youth, the renewed sexuality that her broken marriage has stripped from her, as well as her ties to the past. A secondary meaning to the horse spirit animal is the balance between the instinctive and tame parts of your personality. Ashley is thus more real when she is with her horse, Injun, than when she is in her house. She feels freer, her conversation with Craig is more natural, but she also learns more about herself and the issues that trouble her: “Wow, that’s when this started! The feeling of riding through the woods and the whispered thoughts in French Nothing as intense as now. Why does fantasy only haunt her when a horse jumps? (Bernstein, p. 87) This is the symbolism of the nature/culture dichotomy.
The structure of the story is that of several parts with the first long section establishing the various different relationships. Ashley spends a considerable amount of time analyzing her marriage (desperately), before concluding that there is nothing to be done. This section was long and drawn out. I was wondering why it took so long to come to a resolution of this point. Once the relationship with Craig was established and Bernstein brought the couple together, the book moved into high gear.
In the final section, the plot lines come to a satisfying conclusion and the lovers’ relationship and future, and the nemesis circumstance are well resolved. A final catastrophic climax is well done and keeps the reader guessing until the very last moment.
The role of money in the novel is interesting: Ashley is doing well thanks to her father’s money. She uses the processes and systems and makes them work to improve her life, rather than just make more money. This is a positive role for women.
a third time to die it is a love story with a twist, a paranormal mystery with a captivating heroine and a plot with surprises and developments that were very satisfying. The characters develop in interesting ways over time and as the novel progresses. The relationships were interesting and well drawn. The plot lines come to a satisfying conclusion, and the love affair and the mystery of the foreboding doom are well resolved. The conclusion is gripping, and the response is unexpected and pleasantly surprising. I am happy to rate this book 4 stars out of 5.
References
Australian Psychological Society website. Transpersonal Psychology http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/tpig/.
Bernstein, George A. a third time to die:__ Palm Beach Gardens, Florida: GnD Publishing LLC, 2013.
Wikipedia. monomyth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomito.