Why Go On a Tuesday?

WHY GO ON A TUEDAY? "It is dangerous traveling back," says the poet Pablo Neruda, "because suddenly the past becomes a prison." But what if return to a place of discovery and contentment many years ago could serve to pull you back up into life? Prominent anthropologist Maryanne Fort sets out to revisit the Mexican village where she and her husband first began fieldwork 40 years ago. In the crystal air of highland Chiapas she rediscovers old friends, Mayan-speakers and gringos alike, who are warmer to her than are her own skeptical offspring at home. Especially important is reconnecting with longtime pal photographer Janice Metz, who fled the U.S. in the Red Scare of the 1950s. Acerbic and wise, Janice is also working her way forward in the new territory of widowhood, having lost her "sweetie" of 40 years, the artist Lois Shapiro. Other encounters with people from long ago prove more troubling, especially when their moth-eaten gossip threatens Maryanne's idealized picture of her late husband.