Whatever happened to the rich young man who went away discouraged after Jesus told him to give away his wealth to the poor, leading Jesus to say, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven!" One way to read this novel is as an answer to that question set in the contemporary American context. Given all the religious symbolism and allegory in this novel, and in Millet's previous novel The Children's Bible besides, it seems a not inappropriate direction to take.

Gil was a well-meaning young man who inherited a vast fortune from his deceased parents, and in a surge of enthusiasm upon coming into his inheritance told his lawyer to give it all away, however he was ultimately dissuaded. Having been thus exiled from his true inner self, from his entry into the kingdom of God, he became a rather passive and bullied figure in his discouragement. A rupture finally occurs when his partner leaves him, and he walks through the both metaphorical and literal desert (four months instead of forty days) from New York to Arizona. But none of this is the focus of the novel, the focus is on how he changes after this point of rupture.

The change is gradual and has a lot to do with a relationship he builds with his neighbors, Ted and Ardis ("Ardis", the top of Mount Hermon in Israel, a possible site of the transfiguration of Jesus; where the watcher class of fallen angels descended to earth in the book of Enoch... which may all be irrelevant, or may not be irrelevant at all). Here Gil works on doing good through working with a shelter for abused women, intervening to stop abuse of children in a couple of instances, and perhaps most importantly in terms of this allegory - turning the other cheek and giving his material goods to someone who has wronged him. Somewhat blasphemously, he compares himself to a burning bush after falling into a cactus and laying down the law to a sinner while in spiky agony. Yet he also remains the same rich man of the start of the story, still outside the kingdom of heaven and unable to pass through. He maintains his wealth. He lives in a too-big for him house in an ecological area where it certainly is not sustainable. He makes only small, personalized gestures in the face of large issues like man-made environmental disaster (here echoing The Children's Bible, again). He is human, still, he is us.

The tone of the novel is gentle, with a lack of emphasis on dramatic moments, and focused on the small interactions of life. This sounds like it would be comparable to the work of Elizabeth Strout based on the reactions to her work of people who like Elizabeth Strout; I have not had that good fortune yet, though I do find it here! ( )

An unusual life explored. I loved seeing how Gil, in his 40s, came to know himself and understand his life bit by bit. I appreciated how he gently, but firmly, confronted injustice and what a good friend he was to his neighbors in the glass house. Millet's love for the desert landscape and its avian life is beautifully wrought. ( )

I thought this was going to be a book about a man who walks to Arizona. But it wasn't. It took place after he got there. I enjoyed it immensely. ( )

Happy Publication Day! (October 11. 2022)

Gil, our protagonist, is an extremely wealthy man of forty-five. His inherited wealth has given him an easy life (he admits that his only paying job was a short stint as a bartender). He has few friends, and no family ( he was orphaned at a young age a raised by a grandmother until her death when was still a teenager). However, his outlook toward life is uncomplicated as are his perceptions of the people and places around him. He seems to be burdened by his wealth, guilty even and does his best to give back to society as much as possible. He fills his time serving the community through philanthropy and volunteer work, where he meets most of his friends. His decision to move from Manhattan to Phoenix and his decision to walk all the way (two thousand five hundred miles over a period of almost five months), to experience life as he has never known it surprises everyone who knows him.

“But also, I wanted to pay for something. When you have a lot of money, you never pay for anything. You never feel the cost, so you live like everything is free. There’s never a trade-off, never a choice or a sacrifice, unless you give up your time, I wanted the change to cost me, you know? I wanted to earn it.”

As the novel progresses we see how Gil adjusts to a new life in the suburbs, finding his place in a new environment. His friendship with his neighbors – a family of four- takes center point in the novel as we follow him as he forms new friendships and opens himself up to new possibilities. The narrative switches back and forth between the present and flashbacks from Gil’s life – his friendships, his romantic attachments and much more.

“But being alone was also a closed loop. A loop with a slipknot, say. The loop could be small or large, but it always returned to itself. You had to untie the knot, finally. Open the loop and then everything sank in. And everyone. Then you could see what was true—that separateness had always been the illusion. A simple trick of flesh. The world was inside you after that. Because, after all, you were made of two people only at the very last instant. Before that, of a multiplication so large it couldn’t be fathomed. Back and back in time. A tree in a forest of trees, where men grew from apes and birds grew from dinosaurs.”

Lydia Millet’s writing is beautiful, though some might find it a bit heavy on metaphors. With simple yet elegant prose and short chapters, the narrative at times feels like a collection of vignettes. Each chapter is named after a bird that Gil encounters in his immediate environment. The vividly descriptive details of nature in all its beauty and Gil’s reaction to it- his actions, thoughts and emotions are beautifully expressed. This is a slow-paced, meditative novel that needs to be read slowly. No shocking twists and minimal drama – a story about real, relatable people and their daily lives and the challenges they face trying their best to find their place in their families, in their communities and the world, in general. I found Gil’s way of relating to nature, especially the birds he loves watching ( after a life spent in the city) particularly moving. The abrupt switches between past and present (even between settings in the present) were a tad confusing at times, but not so much that it detracted from the overall reading experience. My only complaint is that I would have loved to read more about his experiences from his journey between New York and Arizona.

Overall, I found Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet to be a beautifully-written, thought-provoking novel – the kind that you would want to read more than once.

Many thanks to Lydia Millet, W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this beautiful novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. ( )

After a failed love affair, a middle-aged man decides to leave his home in New York and set off for Arizona...on foot. His plan is to live there quietly- alone and unattached. Shortly after arriving, he meets his neighbors and finds himself immersed in their lives, despite trying to stay disconnected. An interesting and well-written novel, looking at the ties of self-interest and community. I also enjoyed the many bird references, including avian chapter headings. ( )