La Quinta Cove

Time Is A River
by Mary Alice Monroe

This is a story within a story, of a survivor, Mia, who goes to a retreat in the Appalachian Mountains to gain some perspective after her battle with breast cancer. Its aim was to teach women the art of fly-fishing, but the opportunity to bond with other cancer survivors and create a support group was implied. The teacher was a warm and empathic woman named Belle.

When Mia returns early to her home in Charleston, she finds her husband has been unfaithful and she return to the mountains seeking a place to hide out and regroup. Belle allows her the use of her fishing cabin for the summer and Mia begins to rediscover some of her past interests that had been set aside during her marriage, as well as continuing her new interest in fly fishing. Before she left for the summer, Belle’s only request for the free use of the cabin had been that Mia not delve into the family scandal surrounding her grandmother. Very soon Mia finds herself fascinated with a diary she finds in the cabin that was written by Belle’s grandmother. Unable to keep her word to Belle, she begins to try to unravel the truth of a 70-year-old mystery, feeling great affinity with the grandmother, who is deceased.

Mia meets a man while she is fishing and forms a friendship with him around their common interest.

The story is well written and interesting on several levels; Mia’s self exploration, the mystery surrounding Belle’s grandmother and the tentative steps toward intimacy after mastectomy. I recommend it.