"You never, ever, have to worry about me being with another woman--that will never happen," said Victor. "What you do have to worry about is me being with another man."
That moment is the beginning of the end of a happily-ever-after marriage. After 12 years of marriage, Victor confesses to his wife that he is tormented by same-sex yearnings. Despite his revelation, she is determined to do whatever it takes to make their marriage work: candid conversations, visits with clergy, work with a therapist, search for relevant books. She struggles to keep her marriage from falling apart.
The Straight Spouse: A Memoir is a love story about a woman who is married to a man who turns out to be gay--and how she deals with it in unexpected ways. This story takes place in the early 1990s, and she believes she is the only woman in the world to face this unthinkable threat to her marriage. Her journey--sometimes disturbing, sometimes uplifting--is about the importance of letting go and finding one's own way through hard times.
About the AuthorFransen, Vivian: - Vivian Fransen is a writer, a thinker, and a human shock absorber. Little did she know when she worked as an intern in a crisis intervention center during her senior year at college that all those skills--defining the problem, ensuring personal safety, providing support, examining alternatives, making plans, and committing to positive action--would come in handy years later when her own marriage was in trouble. Despite her personal struggles, she finds her fine-tuned capacity for empathy, acceptance, and positive regard toward others remains strong. Vivian's writing experience spans over 30 years working with a wide range of organizations. She has served as a communications officer, a director of development, a hospital grants administrator, a university development officer, a hospice care administrator, a family planning counselor, and a houseparent in a residential treatment center for troubled girls. She has published dozens of feature stories for New Jersey newspapers and magazines. She currently makes a living as a self-employed writer, editor, and proofreader. She earned a master's degree in public administration and a bachelor's degree in sociology. She shares her passion for memoirs and provides information about relevant resources at her website: straightspousememoir.com. She welcomes opportunities to speak to community groups, marriage counselors and clergy, and human sexuality educators and their students, as well as other readers and book clubs with an interest in memoirs--especially memoirs about marriage and transformation following a disruption.
