"Brilliant. . . . A shimmering meditation on the ebb and flow of
love." -- New York Times
"In her elegant, sophisticated prose, Dillard tells a tale of
intimacy, loss and extraordinary friendship and maturity against a
background of nature in its glorious color and caprice. The Maytrees
is an intelligent, exquisite novel." -- The Washington Times
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. 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.
