Time Is a River

I have read so many of her books and always pass them to my friend .....feel like I am there .....just can't put them down

I had never heard of Mary Alice Monroe before. Ever. But... this looked pretty good. And it was. Ms. Monroe paints a picture of the Carolinas that absolutely haunted me. I'm quite a nature girl myself, but a completely different part of the country. But I found myself willing to give up my desert and mountains to find some quite river in the hills of Carolina to do some fly-fishing. It made sense when I read about the author and found out that Monroe is quite the conservationalist. No one, and I mean no one, could write about this kind of natural beauty and wonder without being passionate about the outdoors. The rest of the story is, and I say this is in the best way possible, chick lit. If you don't like sappy womanly stories, you won't like this. If you do, you will. It's that simple. However, I am happy to say that this is not just a romance. Yes, it has romance which I happily welcome. But this is also a story of independence, nature, quirky community, and a murder mystery. The characters tend to fall toward stereoypes, but oddly enough I did not mind. To me, it just made them cute. What more could you want? Monroe's writing is not exactly simple, but she writes her complex prose like poetry, applying words where they will be welcomed, so I never found myself bogged down in the words. The passion here is the river, and this is a theme and motif with which Monroe runs. This is a beautiful piece of literature that will have something for everyone who enjoys this kind of work. Now excuse me while I go search out more Mary Alice Monre books.

In the novel Time Is a River Mia Landan flees to the mountains of North Carolina to seek solace and refuge. Recovering from breast cancer, she has returned to her Charleston home a day early from a "Casting for Recovery" retreat, to find her husband in bed with another woman. Belle Carson, a fly-fishing guide from the retreat, offers her cabin in Watkins Cove, where Mia hopes to find out who she is now and what she should do next. Belle has never actually stayed in the cabin and isn't even sure she wants to keep it. She will be in Scotland for the summer; thus, the cabin is Mia's for the taking. Wending beside the cabin and down into the woods, a river bubbles along. Fascinated by the timelessness of the river - even the colors that play in the light - Mia turns to it for comfort. She takes her few fly-fishing skills and attempts to hone them, seeking to become one with her body again, and as the author quotes an anonymous source - "The charm of fly-fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive, but attainable - a perpetual series of occasions for hope." Inside the cabin, which is quite rustic, cobwebby, and jammed with assorted items, Mia plunges into the task of cleaning it up for her benefactor Belle. It was a cabin Belle inherited from her mother, and which belonged to her grandmother Kate Watkins. Kate was from a wealthy family that lost its money in the 1929 stock market crash. She managed to keep the cabin and holed up there - where the townspeople gossiped that she entertained her married lover. Then there was a scandal and allegations that Kate had murdered her lover. But when Mia finds a fishing diary and a personal diary, she becomes obsessed with learning what really happened to Kate back in that long-ago time. She ventures into town and begins researching her subject. As Mia draws closer to her goal of learning more about Kate Watkins, she also begins to discover new things about herself. And, of course, her fly-fishing skills increase - especially after she meets handsome Stuart MacDougal, a businessman who happens to love fly-fishing as well. And then she rediscovers her artistic talent of painting, long ago abandoned. As time passes, Mia comes to identify with the river, with Kate Watkins, and with the community surrounding the beautiful cabin. She comes to believe that "time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along. But I am the river." We must ask ourselves what, if anything, does Mia finally learn about the mystery of Kate Watkins and her lover; will she be able to provide Belle with the truth about her grandmother; what will she do with the rest of her life; and finally, can she risk love again, when she might still hold the cells of death in her body? This beautiful tale completely enthralled me - I almost felt part of the river and the community while reading it. The author's descriptive passages reeled me in and allowed me to experience Mia's journey alo

I have to admit this is the first novel I've read by this author. In addition, for the last several years, as I've approached a certain age (I'm 61), I've tended to veer away from "reality" in my choice of reading materials and gone more for "fantasy", i.e., romance novels (hey, don't knock them until you try them), alternate universe stuff and books filled with mythical creatures. I love a good vampire story (maybe the age thing again, although I loved vampires even as a kid, oh well). Anyway, this book. I wanted something different and this book delivered. Mia is "everywoman", despite the fact that not all of us have had to battle cancer. I wondered initially whether I could relate, and boy did I. I also wondered as I started the book whether this was going to be a female "ripoff" of A River Runs Through It". Well, I needn't have worried. It's anything but. It stands completely on its own. There is so much good stuff in this book including the fact that it is filled with wonderful, memorable characters. It was lovely (and completely believable as written) to find a book full of people wanting to "help", as Mia struggles to realistically view her life and marriage before and after the cancer, and the truth of both, and to unravel the decades old mystery of the family the town is named after. Her journey is inspiring in so many ways, simply in recognizing her humanity, aside from the cancer survivor stuff. It's hard to discuss the story itself because I don't want to reveal too much. This is a story that deserves to be savored. Each reader needs to discover the wonders of Watkins Mill, its human inhabitants, its natural wonders, and the spirit of Kate Watkins which lingers there, to help Mia with her journey toward not just recovery, but change, growth and enlightenment. There are characters here we've all met, Charles for example, and even Belle to some extent. But so many others we'd love to meet, to spend time with. And although the author chose not to show it, I have no doubt that Mia will take care of her unfinished business in Charleston with all due speed, then return to Stuart and her river. We all need to step into that river, with or without a fly-fishing rod in our hands, and recognize it's truths. I have to say, it was lovely to simply read this book with the same slow, lazy rhythm as that moving river. No car chases, no blazing guns, no gore, no gratuitous sex or violence. Just a wonderful story full of wisdom and insight and gentle lessons. I could go on, but I think rather I'll take a look at some of Ms. Monroe's other offerings.

This is a soothing and rare treasure of a book. Monroe has really outdone herself this time with the story of breast cancer survivor Mia Landan. After a year of surgeries, radical chemo and radiation, Mia is a ghost of who she once was--a socially polished public relations guru married to an equally driven and sophisticated lawyer. Mia's sister sends her on a 3 day weekend with Casting For Recovery (a real and very amazing group, by the way), a group of survivors who bond and heal, physically and emotionally, through fly fishing. Energized from the experience, she comes home to find her husband in bed with another woman. She blindly races back to the mountains and into the arms of Belle Carson, the fishing guide and infinitely kind hearted woman. Belle owns a dilapidated cabin that she "rents" to Mia for the summer--it's Mia's job to fix the place up so that Belle can rent it out to fisherfolk come fall. But the cabin has a mysterious past that Mia gets completely obsessed with, involving her in the life, present and past, of small town Watkins Cove and the characters that live there. The mystery, the river, the fish, and the friendships bring Mia back to the land of the living and heal more than one person. Told partly in narrative and partly through well researched historical diaries and letters, this is a very powerful story of forgiveness, redemption and new birth. Vitality flows through this book just a surely as the river flows next to the cabin. Any woman who believes--or least longs TO believe--in second chances should read this book.

With the rise in cancer statistics and a world in turmoil, I believe we all have a deep seated urge to seek refuge with our friends, family, and when those aren't available, this novel reminds us of the solace in nature and our imaginations. I just finished, "Time is a River", and found the experience of a safe place through the power of Monroe's beautiful language and gift of storytelling. And this is a tough topic to write about; every woman's greatest fear, the loss of health, strength and her family. And even if we do have a more viable support system, let's face it, we have to walk down those corridors of fear alone. Monroe helps dispel those fears. I believe that this book satisfies every persons dream of living "away from it all", in a cabin, by a beautiful river, with something to keep our mind off ourselves; and here it is the fascinating and unlikely sport of fly fishing. Wow, I really want to try it out! But more importantly, Monroe's novel demonstrates the keys to recovery; acceptance, forgiveness and staying in the present. Nature, art, and relationship keeps all five senses alive and well in this very exciting tale of adventure and recovery. BTW, I "conveniently found" a time capsule in my house in St. Charles, IL., when we were renovating the attic. There were diaries, journals and homemade artifacts of a family 175 years ago. It was an awesome experience, and it happens! People leave things behind for others to find. Isn't that what art really is? Thank you Mary Alice Monroe for stirring up the mud of my imagination.