The Yoke
THE YOKE tells the gripping tale of two lovers, Peter and Julie, battling against mental illness. The narrative begins with Julie’s admittance to a psychiatric hospital and unfolds her 36-year fight to conquer her demons with Peter’s unwavering support. Their journey through fear, escapades, and realizations about ingrained misconceptions culminates in an unexpected, dramatic twist, showcasing a profound drama of devotion and the quest for maturity.
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What is THE YOKE about? And why the ‘yoke?’ Here is a short summary first:
So, what does the yoke symbolize? A yoke connects one to a partner. Two pull a load together. This requires discipline, give-and-take with the teammate, and intimate connection, qualities of true adulthood. Losing willfulness and accepting a symbolic yoke is, paradoxically, enormously freeing. This memoir expresses a conviction that a force within us drives us toward freedom from our own ‘wild card’ lack of restraint.
I love to show readers it is never too late to start writing by being upfront about the fact I started my book, THE YOKE, A Memoir of Love and Psychosis, at age 80 and finished it at 91.
In fact, the honesty it takes to dig down to the core of one’s mental illness and split open the most agonizing symptoms of it to share with readers requires a distance I had not yet traveled at age 50, 60, or even 70.
“A true story of two lovers pitted against a deadly enemy, THE YOKE makes a compelling case for mental illness as a heroic journey. Readers meet the fated couple as Peter delivers Julie, his terrified wife, to a Chicago psychiatric hospital, then returns home to pick up the pieces with three tiny daughters, one a newborn. Julie has been his airy, playful sweetheart from college, idolizing his solid maturity. She has tried to be his teammate, pulling life’s load beside him, but it is not a fit.
As Julie recovers from the ordeal, the saga follows her 36-year resolve to outwit the illness. Determination to become the dependable partner Peter and the family deserve rouses her greatest fear: intimacy. Escapist ‘questing’ adventures all end in relapse. Slowly, Julie realizes that her foe is ingrained in virulent misconceptions from childhood. Peter supports her every escapade, but eventually, he despairs along with his love, providing the jolt needed. The bitter struggle ends in a stunning twist neither Peter nor Julie can foresee. The yoke of maturity has waited patiently in this moving drama of devotion.”
What happens at age 80? Gradually, I have evolved far enough from the student and young mother I once was to present myself as almost a symbolic human, a prototype.
Or, as Fernando Aramburu puts it in the title of his prose poem collection, an Autorretrato sin mi, a ‘self-portrait minus me.’
I love feeling we are all part ‘every human,’ so our most embarrassing and dysfunctional quirks and failings are variations on everyone else’s. That makes it easy to love humanity.
What’s inside
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Chapter 1
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Chapters
Pages
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About the author.
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Upcoming book!
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