Voluntary Chaos

Lyrical and brave, Joan Jackson's Voluntary Chaos travels the long path of a woman's emergence from a false sense of security to find where she truly belongs. In Portland, not long after Gloria Steinem gave women permission to find themselves, Sylvia Beekman's simmering unhappiness with her marriage boils over. Caught between her love for another man and her sense of duty, she wrestles with her double life. The eruption of Mt. St. Helens reminds her that she, too, can no longer remain inactive. Before returning to her love of teaching French, a family visit to Ohio reveals the heartache of her brother's decline with mental illness and her aging parents' attempts to care for him, shattering any illusion she had of moving home. A visit to her in-laws in Amish country solidifies her desire to be with her lover, but after following him to California and Europe, she is tormented by his Jekyll and Hyde personality. Ultimately, she resolves to stand up for herself with hope for the future. Voluntary Chaos won Honorable Mention in the 2010 New York book Festival.