A book like The Maytrees confirms my resolve to award three stars to a good book. Only so do I leave myself room to signal a book that is beyond good, one that I would urge on anyone I knew, friend or enemy, saying, “You owe it to yourself to read this.” This is one of those.
The tale centers on three people, Maytree, Lou, and Daisy, ethical bohemians ideally suited to the improbable sandspit that is the fist of Cape Cod. They are unlike anyone I’ve ever encountered in a book, but they reminded me of some people I know—some of my favorite people. As for the plot, it’s about nothing much, other than love and mortality. In between, the unsolvable question, Does life have a point?
Heavy stuff, right? Dillard clothes it all in elliptical prose that made me read slowly, sometimes twice. She finds countless ways to express what she observes freshly. The book is spiced throughout with sage aphorisms, such as, “The tragedy of old age . . . is not that one is old but that one is young.”
Spoiler alert: all three main characters die. In fact, their deaths are described at length, almost clinically. But Dillard doesn’t do this morbidly. Instead, these scenes illustrate the theme of the book. Maytree, Lou, and Daisy question throughout whether they love—they seem hesitant to claim this word for their relation to each other. Their lives illustrate, though, that love isn’t something that is; love does.
This book often made me laugh out loud. At the same time, it is one of the saddest books I’ve read, as sad as life itself. Dillard gives it away on the second page: “Falling in love, like having a baby, rubs against the current of our lives: separation, loss, and death. That is the joy of them.” ( )

Annie Dillard is an acquired taste, and I thought that I had acquired it. I started [Pilgrim at Tinker Creek] many years ago, and couldn't get into it. Then I picked it up again a few years ago, and virtually drowned in it. I read [An American Childhood] with great pleasure. When I started [The Maytrees] late last year and wasn't pulled in, I decided I needed to wait until life was quieter, or my mood was, or something. I re-started it a few weeks ago, and was ripping right along until I hit a snag in the plot line that made me want to throw things. I put it aside, to deliberate whether I wanted to continue. Waffled. Read a few more chapters. Almost decided to give it up. Read other LT reviews. Counted the pages left. Decided by god to finish the thing. So I did.
As another LT'er wrote here, it works best as a book-length poem, rather than a novel. There is amazing imagery here. And insight into the human heart. But there are many many sentences that just don't say anything I can grasp. Syntax to Dillard is a plaything, and sometimes she breaks a window with it. If you blink your eyes, you'll miss the story. I want story. I closed the book dissatisfied with both the author and myself. I suspect I may one day revisit this novel. A second reading might be just what it needs.
Read and reviewed in 2009 ( )

Incandescent story of a marriage. ( )

A work of fiction labeled a novel, but I find no plot or storyline that makes the reader think of a regular novel. I believe reviews by Kendall and Alicia on Goodreads do a fairly good description of how Ms. Dillard weaves observations, descriptions, dialog, philosophy, nature, poetry, and so much more into a book that that really defies description. This book will take time to read, digest, and revisit often to truly sink in. ( )

This is a multigenerational saga about the Maytree family, and is short (under 300 pages) considering it covers such a long time span. Dillard’s writing is beautifully poetic, and her descriptions of place are easily pictured, especially the scenes of sea, shore, swamps, sky, and stars. In one part, she captures a mother’s nostalgia for when her son was a young child, and the bond between the two is wonderfully portrayed. I loved the writing. If I were just rating this based on how it is written, it would be 5 stars.

Unfortunately, the storyline did not quite work for me. A man and woman fall in love, marry, and have a child. The man is a part-time poet. They live in Cape Cod and frequently interact with the Bohemian community of artists who live there. So far, so good. The issue is that it is difficult to understand their motivations. What happened to make their marriage fall apart? How is the wife able to get beyond her husband’s betrayal? She seems to take everything in stride and move forward as if nothing had happened. We are never privy to reasons for their actions. For a beautifully written book, I would expect it to be an emotional read, but I felt disconnected from the characters. I loved the writing but did not feel much for the characters. ( )