Finish the book and delight in reading it again

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	• The Maytrees: A Novel Annie Dillard HarperCollins, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 50 reviews view larger image
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Wonderful story but stilted writing

I really enjoyed this story but found the book aggravating to finish. It seemed almost as if it was written in stream-of-consciousness. I only learned bare details of any one character and before I committed that to memory, I was spinning off somewhere else entirely. My best guess is that this is a novel written by a poet in a poetic form. Or it was trimmed from an excessive page count. Whomever convinced Ms. Dillard to trim this book should have suggested 350-400 pages as the lower limit. But then perhaps it would have been closer to a Nicholas Sparks (ughhh) knock-off then a unique piece of fiction by this author. Ms. Dillard has definitely made an impression on me in this novel with a wonderful story, but I will also remembering reading it as a task that I was not necessarily up to. Probably best read in one sitting (father of toddler has no such opportunity).

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Poetic Beauty

This was one of the most beautifully written books about love that I've ever read. It's not necessarily a "love story," but it is about love. The plot is not complicated or intricate. It's a simple story. What makes this book so amazing is the way it's written. It's poetic. The setting is a major aspect of the book bringing a certain atmosphere. The characters are so well drawn and it's such a joy to get inside their heads. But the writing is just so pure. Annie Dillard accomplishes so much in not a very long book. Her writing is close to perfect.

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Finish the book and delight in reading it again

Read this book slowly and enjoy. Annie Dillard focuses the detailed attention previously paid to the wonders of nature in previous books to the story of a relationship so real to me that I could see the Maytrees, Lou and Toby, walking down the beach. Surrounding them, Annie Dillard enlivens a group of friends who are quirky and full of life and loyal to Lou and Maytree and respectful of that relationship, however it might play out.

Then there are the children. Lou thinking back over the years to the ever changing boy becoming a man, Petie their son. "Together the sons at every age and size - scented with diaper, formula on rubber nipples, salt-soaked sand, bike grease, wax crayon, beer , manila, engine oil, fish - waited for dinner. Who else knew what each liked?"

And the grandchildren. "Well, one time she fell in love; the next minute - in an apparently unrelated event - an unprecedented short person played with a roller skate on the floor. Without this new one (and presumably his ilk) she had absurdly considered her life full. When Petie was young, she assumed Petie would make his life around her - were they not miraculously, deliriously as one? Then the next minute this same one propped his own boggling-new, hitherto-nowhere child in his arms to display to her as if she had never seen such a thing. Who had? It was as if the tide came in under the door."

I finished the book after slowly reading it and immediately began browsing through it again to savor the language and images and to catch nuances of the characters that I might have missed before I got to know them. Enjoy.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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