I felt truly guilty about giving this a one-star rating.

It just didn't manage to hold my attention for a long enough period to enable me to really delve deep into the book.

Of course, I'm assuming there was something deeper to discover.

In any event, we have the Maytrees, Toby and Lou. They are married and everything seems to be going swimmingly until suddenly two things occur.

First, their son has a bike accident and breaks his leg. Second, Maytree decides on this very day to leave his wife of 11 (or so) years for a tramp named Deary who sleeps out in the dunes by the sea.

This is when my questions begin to multiply.

What's the story with Lou? Why does she take Maytree's walking out on her so calmly?

Shouldn't she be mourning, furious, or extremely upset considering how insensitive he is to run away when her son is injured?

Especially since the woman he left her for is also her friend? Why is she so composed? Is she a saint or just unfeeling?

When Petie (the son) can take years to come to terms with his father's betrayal, why can't the mother?

What's the deal with Maytree? Why does he choose to leave on the day his son needs him the most, if not his wife?

Why does he fall out of love with her? Why don't we get a clear understanding of whether this man loves anyone, including Deary?

Why does he stay with Deary? Why doesn't he have the decency to even call his wife before showing up at her doorstep with a dying Deary and an injured self?

Why does he expect she won't slam the door in his face? And a question about Lou - why doesn't she?

What's the story with Deary? What led to her transformation from a tramp to a high society lady?

Why was Maytree so crucial to her - she who had so many husbands before him? Why does she play hard to get and not sleep with him until he's left Lou for good?

Why does she never show any remorse towards Lou but expect that Lou is a good, kind woman with the patience of a saint?

What's the deal with Petie? Why even include his perspective when he has very little to contribute to the novel as a whole?

As you can see, I had a problem. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, and no amount of elaborate writing could make me interested in what happened to them.

There's also a certain slipperiness to the writing (I don't know how else to describe it) that I just couldn't get a handle on.

I read it without really taking much in, and I would have to go back and start over, yet I still wouldn't feel that I had missed anything.

There is a lot of text, but I don't think we're actually told very much. However, if Provincetown, MA needed a proponent, this book would be it.

The descriptions of the little tourist town overlooking the Atlantic are some of the most coherent in the book.

The original article is not provided, so I can't rewrite and expand it specifically. However, I can give you a general example of how to expand an article.

Let's say the original article is: "The dog is running in the park."

Expanded version:

The energetic dog is joyfully running in the beautiful park. The park is filled with colorful flowers and green grass. The dog's fur is shiny and its tail is wagging excitedly as it chases after a butterfly. It seems to be enjoying the freedom and the fresh air. People in the park are smiling and watching the dog with amusement.

You can follow a similar pattern to expand your own article. First, describe the subject in more detail. Then, add information about the surroundings and the actions or emotions of the subject. Finally, you can include the reactions of other people or things in the scene. This will make your article more vivid and interesting.

I didn't get very far before abandoning this book, which was my first attempt at reading Annie Dillard. I suppose I'm not always patient enough. I almost gave up on "Housekeeping" for the same reason. That would have been a big mistake.

My bullshit detectors go off whenever the idea of a "love story" appears. It's that "airy-fairy" female style of writing that makes me impatient. Before anyone gets angry, let me say that Alice Munro is my favorite writer and I think she's a woman. So is Marilynne Robinson. And Jane Austen was too.

Ron Hansen, a man whose writing I usually like, wrote something similar in a lighter way ("Isn't It Romantic") and I really didn't like it. It was way too precious. Human beings are real. Romantic love is just a myth. The date I semi-read this is just a guess. Maybe I'll give Annie Dillard another chance.

I've been completely enamored of Annie Dillard ever since I first read Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek. Her extensive body of work mainly consists of non-fiction, so I eagerly grabbed this particular piece to observe how she would approach the realm of fiction.

On one hand, I was initially disappointed. The characters in the story are extremely eccentric and quirky, and the narrative is so sparse and staccato that it really put me off at first.

However, her language is simply exquisite, and it completely captivated me. As I took the time to reflect back on the story, I discovered that it held a certain charm and was more interesting than I had initially thought.

Annie Dillard must collect words in the same way that some people might collect exquisite specimens of jewels. She crafts her sentences with such precision and perfection that each one is truly a work of art in itself, perhaps even to the detriment of the overall story. She employs alliteration better than anyone I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

For example, she writes, \\"A bluefish boil blackened the water...overhead clouds cracked the last light like crude.\\"

She has this remarkable ability to put words together in the most wonderful and memorable ways. Who really cares if the plot isn't overly riveting? She is, without a doubt, an amazing language artist. She uses ordinary words in ways that you would never even think of, yet her images are startlingly clear and pitch perfect. It's truly fascinating to witness her mastery of the English language.

I have just completed reading this book, and I am certain that I need to let it sink in a little.

First and foremost, I must say that this is a significant book to peruse. Annie Dillard is engaged in something truly fascinating here, yet I'm not entirely sure precisely what it is - which is part of the charm and allure of the novel.

There is a plot twist at the beginning (which I shall not disclose), but I believe it was a bold choice for Dillard to make. At times, I appreciated the "distance" from the characters. They exist within their own minds, and we feel rather removed from them; however, simultaneously, it is this very aspect that makes the novel somewhat challenging to engage with initially. There are those novels that you simply cannot put down, and this wasn't one of them until perhaps after the first hundred pages. I suspect that Dillard is exploring something philosophical regarding the emotional detachment we experience from the characters, but it does make "The Maytrees" a bit of a tough read at the outset.

The aspect that is both the strength and the weakness of the novel simultaneously is Dillard's poetic utilization of language. At times, it is exquisitely beautiful, as seen in passages like: "Let's pretend we're old, Lou remembered saying back when they were young. They had been watching hurricane waves rip the outer beach. To walk back they aligned adjacent legs like a pair in a three-legged race." And "Those days will come soon enough, Maytree said. His gravity had startled her. Now those days were here." (206).

Yet, at other times, the poetic language can be extremely distracting. There are sentences with internal rhyme that can sometimes give the impression that you're in a chaotic asylum.

Nonetheless, it remains an important book to read. I cannot quite put it into words. I just know that it holds a certain significance.

Wow.

The extreme, pulled-apart style of Dillard’s prose initially left me feeling frustrated. It never quite attains the profundity of a work such as The Shipping News. However, I gradually came to love it immensely. I have a weakness for a story that immerses you in a foreign world simply due to the poetic stylization of language use. I would say that the more extreme aspects of this functioned approximately 75% of the time in The Maytrees.

Dillard does an excellent job of saturating the reader in the experience of the moment. This novel spans a lifetime, yet every change of circumstance feels as bewildering as a real reflection on unexpected outcomes considered a decade later. The love between Lou and Maytree is overwhelmingly beautiful. However, the twists in this novel led me to the verge of an existential crisis that is already reaching a crescendo in my own life. It is a little startling to serendipitously pick up a novel like this that you forgot you bought sight unseen at a library book sale, only to discover that it overflows with the deepest questions you need to ask about your own life circumstances. The wild alignment of stars; still unsure of how to best progress in developing relationships of substance and meaning while finding peace and openhandedness. Is reliance on others fated to lead to bewilderment? Is self-sufficiency the solution or the poison?

Well written and beautiful, but I didn't enjoy it.

Maybe I am too contemporary, too Jewish, too vengeful? I don't know.

I'd shelved this novel many times at the public library when I worked there and always wanted to read it, believing I'd love this novel about two very individual people who become a couple, then part, then come back together.

But why did they part? Why does Maytree fall out of love with a woman he wanted so much?

Why, after carving out a suddenly independent life for herself, does she give it all away to care for the woman, a close friend, who ran off with her husband? How did Maytree repair his relationship with his son?

They are described in summaries as ‘bohemian & unconventional’. How so? They marry, have a child, live in a home in post-war still cheap still straight Provincetown. Is it because he writes poetry? Because she paints?

I had a hard time with all of it. And I felt jealous of fictional characters who owned beachfront property and a shack with an outhouse you now have to apply for and hope you're one of the chosen.

Oh Lou, what were you thinking? This story, which seemed so promising at first, left me with more questions than answers. The characters' actions and decisions often felt incomprehensible to me, and I struggled to connect with them on an emotional level. Despite the beautiful writing, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment. Maybe it's because I'm a product of my own time and culture, and these bohemian characters from a different era just don't resonate with me. Or maybe there's something deeper going on that I'm not quite able to grasp. In any case, I'm left wondering if I'm missing something important, or if this is just a case of a book that wasn't meant for me.

A read for the month of May? May be. :O)

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MAYTREES

Spring
Tbr
Families
Filty lucre (lack of)
Fraudio
Post wwII
Poetry
Romance
Boff

This has been given the sickly Woman's Hour treatment - all background soft piano and slowly read by an empathy oozing soft male voice. Honey with that sugar, dearie!?

May is a beautiful month, and what better way to spend it than with a good book? "MAYTREES" seems to offer a diverse range of elements. It has the charm of spring, which is always a refreshing and hopeful time. The mention of families adds a touch of warmth and familiarity. The lack of filty lucre might suggest a story that explores more than just material wealth. The presence of poetry and romance gives the impression of a more sensitive and emotional narrative. However, the description of the sickly Woman's Hour treatment makes one wonder if the book has been overly sentimentalized. The soft piano background and the empathy oozing soft male voice might be a bit too much for some readers. But perhaps there is still something to discover within the pages of "MAYTREES" that will make it a worthwhile read for the month of May.

I read this in an online pandemic book club sponsored by A Public Space and led by Elizabeth McCracken.

This is one of her favorite books and she is one of my favorite writers.

It is not an easy book. I am all for books and authors asking much of the reader. THE MAYTREES and Annie Dillard ask a great deal. In this case, perhaps a bit more than I was willing to give.

The novel is filled with arcane language and syntax. At times, it feels deliberately obfuscatory. By that, I mean I think Annie Dillard wanted the reader to be left on their own, to interpret and emotionally analyze the actions as the characters would have to, and reach our own conclusions.

Unfortunately, for me, I became embarrassed when looking up a word. Instead of finding its meaning, I found endless links to other people who had also been looking up this word, which was only found in THE MAYTREES. On one hand, it was a wonderful lexicological delight from Annie Dillard. But on the other hand, it interrupted my reading.

The thing is, I then felt inept and less smart than I like to think of myself. I understood that the difficult-to-translate language, patterns, vocabulary, and behavior of the characters was to give us the experience of knowing and living their lives as they did. They were people who loved one another yet were extremely difficult to understand and deal with.

However, I wasn't in love with any of them. In particular, I found Maytree, the fellow, to be despicable.

That said, having experienced the long, slow death of my mother in the past year, the scenes where characters were caring for others who were in the process of fading away into non-existence did indeed capture that with great acuity.

So, it is literary fiction of unquestionable artistry. But it can be a bit of a slog with moments of "wait a minute --- WHAT?". This can be a wonderful thing if you are in the mood for it. She is definitely a writer's writer.

What could be worse than having to ask the wife and mother of your young son, whom you left for another woman, to assist you in caring for the wife you abandoned her for regarding her healthcare? Moreover, the new wife was formerly the ex-wife's best friend.

The Maytrees seemed to me like a book filled with beautiful quotes intertwined with bouts of story. Why can love, that seemingly absolute emotion, recur time and again? Why does love feel and know with certainty that it is eternal and absolute every single time, as Maytree questions. A drunk man names a seven-year-old girl Tandy, which he claims means something like the quality of - Tandy means the quality of being strong to be loved. It is something that men yearn for from women but often don't receive. Why would someone burden a baby with a made-up name that implies the quality of being strong to be loved? Jane. Marriage is such a grave and decisive step that it attracts flighty and variable men precisely because of its awfulness, as Maytree remarks. Anthropology has disproven its initial expectations regarding the ideal of lasting love, yet its undeniable, albeit minority, presence is nearly universal in culture after culture, dating back to the Stone Age. If evolution programmed an eighteen-month infatuation, perhaps long enough to get a baby on its feet and cared for only by grandpa or siblings, then the man could go off and impregnate someone else. But why do old people still fall in love? Why do they stay loving? The feeling of love is so crucial to our species that it is excessive, much like labor pain. Lasting love is an act of will. It is a gentleman's game, as Maytree posits. Maytree spends the entire book analyzing and exploring various facets of love, his way of loving, and the reasons behind it. I experienced this book through the audio read by David Rasche, and what an experience it was.

Annie Dillard is a remarkable writer whose works have had a profound impact on me.

Her vivid descriptions and deep insights into the natural world and human experience make me feel truly grateful to be alive.

When I read her words, I am transported to a place of wonder and awe, where I can see the beauty and complexity of life in a whole new light.

She has a unique ability to capture the essence of a moment and make it come alive on the page, whether it's the sight of a bird in flight or the sound of a river flowing.

Her writing reminds me that there is so much to discover and appreciate in this world, and that every moment is a precious gift.

Thanks to Annie Dillard, I am more aware of the奇迹 and mystery that surrounds us every day, and I am filled with a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to be a part of it all.

I didn't really like this!

I found it quite strange.

The writing was indeed lovely, but it also made me wonder what the point of paragraphs was if Annie Dillard was going to pile up so many unrelated sentences like that.

I'm curious if all her novels are written in this style.

Her non-fiction seems much more clear and organized.

Perhaps this is a deliberate choice on her part, to create a certain effect or to challenge the reader's expectations.

However, for me, it made the reading experience a bit disjointed.

I had to constantly try to make sense of how the different sentences fit together.

Maybe with more exposure to her work, I would come to appreciate this style more.

But for now, I'll stick with her non-fiction, which I find more engaging and easier to follow.