The Time Diaries

by Kenneth Womack  The Time Diaries narrates a pair of love stories separated by a century and an ocean, yet bound together by the power of fine art as a means for elevating the human condition. The Time Diaries tells the parallel stories of Mary Cassatt, the renowned American Impressionist artist, and Judy Coker, a contemporary graduate student in Art History at the University of Chicago. In the novel, Judy wins a summer “Genius Award” that launches her on a global journey in search of a lost painting by Cassatt. She is accompanied on her quest by Noah Dearing, a fellow graduate student for whom she nurses a not-so-secret crush. For Judy, the adventure is fraught with trials and tribulations, particularly because of her devastating bout with Stendhal Syndrome, the psychological disorder that plunges her into a state of catatonia whenever she encounters the aesthetic power and beauty of art. Meanwhile, Cassatt finds herself in a nearly lifelong struggle between her romantic feelings fo