Toby Maytree first sees Lou Bigelow on her bicycle in postwar Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her laughter and loveliness catch his breath. Maytree is a Provincetown native, an educated poet of thirty. As he courts Lou, just out of college, her stillness draws him. Hands-off, he hides his serious wooing, and idly shows her his poems.
In spare, elegant prose, Dillard traces the Maytrees' decades of loving and longing. They live cheaply among the nonconformist artists and writers that the bare tip of Cape Cod attracts. When their son Petie appears, their innocent Bohemian friend Deary helps care for him. But years later it is Deary who causes the town to talk.
In this moving novel, Dillard intimately depicts willed bonds of loyalty, friendship, and abiding love. She presents nature's vastness and nearness. Warm and hopeful, The Maytrees is the surprising capstone of Dillard's original body of work.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A disappointment after Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
I loved Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and was excited when I saw the audio-version of The Maytrees at my library. I didn't enjoy the book. I am very surprised to see so many good reviews. I can't imagine we ... Read More
Rating: - flowery to the point of suffocation
This was a "share" book, given to me by someone who loved it. That was all right because an earlier share book was "Eat,Pray, Love," which turned out to be very compelling. Unfortunately, the same cannot ... Read More
Rating: - "Mature experience of enduring marital love...." NOT
The Maytrees isn't the great American novel.
I started reading Dillard's book eagerly, but began to stumble over some of the words. Dictionary in hand, the early chapters held my attention despite ... Read More
Rating: - Once more and ever
It was long ago that I bought the book, on a long, lone roadtrip southwest, in a favorite bookstore alongside the Rockies. I held it, carried it, kept it on my coffeetable, my nightstand, prolonging the sweet anticipation, ... Read More
Rating: - One of my Favorite Books Ever
This novel is right up there among my favorites, along with Gilead and Housekeeping, both by Marilynne Robinson. I love Annie Dillard's spare and lyrical style. Each sentence is lovingly crafted to say exactly what it means ... Read More
- A disappointment after Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
- flowery to the point of suffocation
- Once more and ever 