cover:
With a haunting story of love in a time of war, Helen Humphreys has created a novel that is both heartrending and heart-mending. Horticulturalist Gwen Davis has fled the Blitz in London for a rundown estate in Devon as a volunteer with the Women's Land Army. There, she must organize a group of young women who are to grow food for the war effort. Posted on the estate as well is a Canadian regiment awaiting orders for the front. These three months together are a time of rural escape for them and a time of change for Gwen, who, for the first time, experiences true friendship, love and loss, while bringing a hidden garden back to life.

Poetical prose, or prosey poetry. Not at all what I was expecting. I think I was expecting something more life-affirming & exciting in the discovery & renewal of a hidden, forgotten garden. This was more angst-ridden, yearning, longing for what is lost & unattainable. Very nice in its way, but a bit powerless, even disempowering, a resignation rather than an acceptance.

I could appreciate the beautiful language, but it left me less interested in the people than in the gardens & animals. Nature fights & struggles to survive, whether it "loses its fragrance to the earth in one reckless gesture" or their heads fall to the ground "under the weight of themselves". Plants thrust & strive, animals mate briefly & brutally, they don't meander through life in "longing", "loss" & "faith". The garden itself sounds like a wonderful love letter from someone for someone/thing - a pouring out of love -, not the waiting, inert, hapless creature described here.

I suppose I'm a little ambivalent. I did enjoy the book. I could see Gwen's journey & appreciate that Jane fought to keep death & grief at bay in the only way she felt she could. It was a time full of loss, longing, death & grief, & of love. But why so melancholy, when gardens speak of growth, birth, re-birth, as well as love & loss?

As for letters to Virginia Wolff, well despair can lead humans to all sorts of depths & degradations, but can also lead upwards to understanding & achievement. I prefer to think of the life of a garden as pleasure, rather than tribulation.

Maybe my understanding of the book is incomplete. Perhaps I'd have to read it several times to really understand, but it doesn't call to me. I am glad that the final words are: "And this is what I have remembered of love." An acknowledgement of love, no matter how dreary.

There's a bit of blurb on the back cover that says: "Helen Humphreys has created a novel that is both heartrending and heart-mending". I certainly wouldn't want to turn to this in the depths of despair, but it did seem that Gwen's heart had been mended by her experiences, the people she met & the gardens she restored. I'm glad this is so for Gwen, because I couldn't help liking her spiky shyness.

All that said, I had trouble putting the book down once I got into it, & had to force myself to turn the lights out in the early hours of this morning.

Sent to LoriPed for the Best of 2015 swap.

Received in the mail today, and I'm looking forward to reading it.