Shelby Hearon's Hug Dancing is a wonderful novel brimming with emotion and colorful characters. Middle-aged Cile Tait decides to leave her husband Eben, minister of Grace Presbyterian Church in Waco, Texas, after falling back in love with her high school beau Drew. She is seeking a livelier recipe for living than Eben with his preplanned existence can offer her. And Cile doesn't regret leaving the church: "The church I thought had not been so much a family as I hoped; rather, it functioned more like a scout troop--a leader surrounded by eager tenderfeet."
Before Cile and Drew can jump start their new life together, they have to take care of unfinished business in Waco. Drew's greedy wife holds up the divorce with the intention of selling their farm to a government supercollider project. And Lila Beth, Cile's favorite person who is also Drew's mother, opposes their union. A family secret is at the heart of this matter.
Shelby Hearon's delightful novel is a spiffy parable about the messiness of modern love in an age of divorce when so many lives, egos, needs, and fantasies are involved. Hearon's view of the Presbyterian church will seem right on target to many observers, as will her portrait of changes in Sun Belt cities where hug dancing from yesteryear has been replaced by supercolliders.