The Triangle of Light

As the corporate wife of a junior partner in one of the largest law firms in the mid-western states, Chimmie McConnell enjoys the option of working as a volunteer in the community, but always feeling that her husband and children come first. Upon meeting her, it would seem that she embodies the cultural stereotype of entitlement. The socialite living in the architect-designed home; the ladies-that-lunch group. However, there is an undercurrent of something in her life ... in her past ... that seems unresolved. The feeling that surfaces intermittently, but then retreats into the Pandora's box of events that deplore remembering.

With her children doing well, and the relationship with her husband seemingly comfortable, the stability of all of this changes when her husband asks for a divorce, and which brings about the end of over a twenty-year-marriage. The attempts to deal with the humiliation and anger of being rejected for a secretary in the firm twenty-five years younger are difficult. And this, after what had been termed as six years of marriage counseling.

Recognizing the catastrophic changes in her life because of the divorce that she never could have anticipated, the novel builds on the tension of unresolved psychological trauma alternating with sociological issues, and the culture shock she experiences when leaving the protected world of the corporate wife. She enrolls as a non-traditional student in the biological sciences at a local university where socialite ego clashes with professorial ego. The objective no longer fund-raising, but quizzes, tests, finals, papers, and her attempts to meet what seem the unreasonable demands of the professors.

The events, long repressed that eventually surface after almost two decades, force Chimmie to acknowledge their reality. She is now having to accept that she is an intrinsic part of what is considered a most controversial issue. An issue most dark; sinister. Secret. An issue known, but never spoken of, for many years. The novel details what has been added to her persona; and the range of emotional reactions to this new identity from the most loved family and friends in her life.

-- F.W. Haversham