Day 10

Of all the obscure words Dillard deploys, tatterdemalion is perhaps my favorite, & wonderfully used in this four word sentence. Beautiful, surprising: extravagance set in simplicity. —Elizabeth

“He remembered her tatterdemalion.”

Pete, too, meditates on what old age means, what love means, and assumes he knows his parents’ past, that they had never loved each other. Would it be better or worse for him to know the truth? —Elizabeth

Maytree & Deary’s life turns out to have been a balancing act, now that caretaker Maytree cannot take care. But he has money, & in Provincetown, “his real wife.” He knows he’s lucky though he doesn’t feel it. —Elizabeth