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by Dillard, Annie
Fans of Annie Dillard?s 1974 nonfiction bestseller, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, may fondly recall some of her exquisite descriptions of the natural world. Those readers who have not yet encountered her will find a writer who challenges, shocks, and delights with her skillful use of words. Her new novel, The Maytrees, is the love story of Toby Maytree, a poet and Lou Bigelow, a painter. It is also the story of their life-long love of a special bit of land, the rugged remote northern tip of Cape Cod, and its inhabitants. It is this land where they first met, courted and wed in the early months following World War II. It is the ocean, their friends, and the wind swept dunes that add drama to the couple?s quiet, day-to-day existence. Their lives, on the surface, appear quite ordinary. But no life it truly ordinary. As Dillard reveals her characters? secret thoughts and surprising actions in her deceptively simple sentences, we are offered a glimpse into who Toby and Lou truly are. This is not a fast-paced, plot driven novel. It is not a conventional romance. It is a story about love and loss and separation and death and wonder as told in the unique style of a master wordsmith.
- reviewed by Diana, Main Library, PLCMC

{mosgoogle} 

by Dillard, Annie
Fans of Annie Dillard?s 1974 nonfiction bestseller, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, may fondly recall some of her exquisite descriptions of the natural world. Those readers who have not yet encountered her will find a writer who challenges, shocks, and delights with her skillful use of words. Her new novel, The Maytrees, is the love story of Toby Maytree, a poet and Lou Bigelow, a painter. It is also the story of their life-long love of a special bit of land, the rugged remote northern tip of Cape Cod, and its inhabitants. It is this land where they first met, courted and wed in the early months following World War II. It is the ocean, their friends, and the wind swept dunes that add drama to the couple?s quiet, day-to-day existence. Their lives, on the surface, appear quite ordinary. But no life it truly ordinary. As Dillard reveals her characters? secret thoughts and surprising actions in her deceptively simple sentences, we are offered a glimpse into who Toby and Lou truly are. This is not a fast-paced, plot driven novel. It is not a conventional romance. It is a story about love and loss and separation and death and wonder as told in the unique style of a master wordsmith.
- reviewed by Diana, Main Library, PLCMC