A thoughtful read -

Just finished The Maytrees by Annie Dillard.  Haven't read her in years. You may know her as the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."  A few years ago I read The Living, a fascinating story about the early Native Americans who settled the San Juan Islands off the coast of  Washington state, also by Annie Dillard.  My neighbor was taking a trip there, so I suggested the novel to her - and she commented later that it had added to her enjoyment of her vacation.

So we were at Porter's piano recital last week, and a parent there noted that he was going kayaking in the San Juan Islands this summer.  So that reminded me about the book - but I could not remember the title.  So I went home and looked up Annie Dillard - because I could remember the author!!  Reading her website was instructive - learned more about Annie Dillard than I probably needed to know, but it was informative.  For example, she calls herself a "gregarious recluse."  Seems slightly oxymoronic doesn't it?

Anyway, found out the title - and also read about The Maytrees,  a novel published in 2007, her first since The Living, so I went to the library the next day and checked it out.  It is a strange novel - rather stream-of-consciousness - best read in a few sittings - but the prose, though obscure most of the time, is really quite beautiful - and thoughtful.

"She pushed the tiller hard over, came about, and set a slashing course upwind.  The one-room, ever-sparer dune shack was her chief dwelling from which only hurricane or frost exiled her.  Over decades, she had reclaimed what she had forfeited of her own mind, if any.  She took pains to keep outside the world's acceleration. An Athens marketplace amazed Diogenes with "How many things there are in the world of which Diogenes hath not need!"  Lou had long since cut out fashion and all radio but the Red Sox.  In the past few years she had let go her ties to people she did not like, to ironing, to dining out in town, and to buying things not necessary and that themselves needed care.  She ignored whatever did not interest her. With those blows she opened her days like a pinata.  A hundred freedoms fell on her.  She hitched free years to her lifespan like a kite tail.  Everyone envied her the time she had, not noticing that they had equal time."

I recommend it for your summer reading list - if you read it, let me know what you think.  Or maybe you've read it already!!  Let me know.  I recommend The Living too - but "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" didn't do much for me.  And I'm almost a hippie - not sure why it didn't grab me!!  (Annie Dillard is about 3 weeks older than me - maybe that's why we connect!)