Merrinda Wright was born into her own Cinderella story, a rejected child taken in by a resentful grandmother after her parents split. She was punished for being “like your black daddy” while most of the family was more “lightskinned.” Undaunted, Merrinda grew up in West Virginia as “a child with many dreams,” as she explains in her book, Triumph: In the Face of Struggles, Annoyances, Stalking, Schemes and Coverts Revealed.
The unwieldy subtitle highlights the book’s startling main theme. Over the course of her 75-plus years, Wright reports being stalked and harassed by an endless parade of persecutors, all for unrelated grievances. A security guard, a principal, maintenance workers, neighbors, church members – you name it, the enemies list goes on. She even is accused, at church, of practicing witchcraft. But she is educated and God-fearing; why is everybody after her? She suggests a major reason is “jealousy of all my accomplishments.” Plus, she explains, “If you try to live a life of integrity … people will not want you around.”
Her book is billed as fiction, but stalkers and creepy tormenters pop up with such regularity that it strains even fictional believability. She writes, for example, that one tormenter used a TV satellite system to spy on her inside her own home. Yet woven throughout this odd drama is a touching, faith-filled backstory, supplemented by the author’s sketches and photographs, of a lonely child who rose heroically from single mother on welfare, to college student, to respected business teacher. So is Triumph more a product of lively imagination, or a catharsis for a painful life? Only Wright knows. Her closing message is that God will triumph. “Religion is my family,” she writes. “God will give me the victory over all injustice.”
Those seeking inspiration from their own painful childhoods may be encouraged by this book, although many may find that the theme of persecution by legions of enemies dampens the inspirational message.
Also available as an ebook.
