I’ve seen a number of reviews lately of The Maytrees by Annie Dillard.
More magazine: “This nonfiction Pulitzer Prize-winner’s second novel is a painful look at marriage and a triumphant look at love. Dillard, a naturalist at heart, poignantly tracks the relationship between Lou and Toby Maytree across 50 years.”
The Washington Post Sunday Source: This novel “is a gorgeous meditation on one couple’s slog through marriage, separation and reconcilation. Dillard’s spare yet lofty prose teems with unassuming power – a talent only the most seasoned of writers seem to master.” (Though it warns that “readers on the verge of a breakup or blinded by the onset of a new romance might flinch at Dillard’s all-too-true depiction of love’s ebb and flow.”)
From The New York Observer: “Writing about Provincetown, Annie Dillard does the near-impossible: She matches the simple splendor of language to the subtle magnificence of place. And writing about the Maytrees, she captures the entwining and transformation of two people who marry and then grow up.” The whole review is here.
And from one of my favorite book blogs (Hi Meaghan!), Clipped Wings in Kitty Hawk:
I love reading. I love great prose, the ability of a truly great writer to elevate the mundane on a page to a work of substance, to give not only a story, but almost a philosophy lesson as well.
The Maytrees are Lou and Maytree (he goes by his last name), an easy-going couple who meet on Cape Cod in, I think, the 50s. They live simply, sleep beneath the stars, and shun modern technology. The book is the story of their relationship. Not in dialogue, or in a “this happened then this happened” way, but through a flowing verse that carries the reader into their lives, their experiences, their thoughts. Dillard brilliantly enraptured me with her writing. This is a great book.
Let me know if you’ve read this – would love to hear more.