Jane Delury is masterful with her prose, but that isn’t why I love Hedge. Well, it isn’t the only reason I love Hedge. This book is like a gift arriving on your doorstep that allows you to wonder about love in midlife. It’s an invitation for all parents to remember that they, too, are human and deserving of love and affection. Life doesn’t necessarily have to plod on. Love, passion, intimacy, and connection aren't relegated to the past. There's always more to look forward to at any age.
Hedge is also a page-turner. It plays on those fraught nerves and the exposed parts of ourselves where the fear alone that something might hurt our children is enough to kill us.
It’s also beautiful and transportive. Jane takes us through gardens, into the dirt of flower beds, and around paths and plains. The very heart of nature bursts through. It’s sensual, visual, and therapeutic in the way that a walk in the park can change our entire view of life. We flee. We travel. We admire. We marvel.
And we do all of this while enmeshed in the complications of a mother’s feelings about her marriage, her desires, and her children. It has all the elements of a completely sensational story and is written powerfully and lyrically.
Hedge will rejuvenate you. It will make you think and feel. It will make you question and even, perhaps, enact some necessary changes. Most of all, it will entertain you on every level.
Hedge will change your life.
And that’s just part of why I love it.
