Review: Lydia Millet’s latest novel ‘Dinosaurs’ quietly engages and soars | Book Reviews

DINOSAUR. By Lydia Millet. WW Norton & Company. 240 pages. $26.95.

Gil, the protagonist of Lydia Millet’s latest novel, Dinosaurs, is independent, wealthy, and unattached. He has no family. Nobody needs him. His two friends are married and employed. When, after a difficult breakup, he decides to move from New York City to Arizona, he buys his house sight-seeing, arranges movers, and goes there.

He chose Arizona because he was won over by the drone landscape footage he was looking at, and it was very different from New York. He wants the new place to be as different from the old as possible. It takes five months for the hike.

Wandering the land, we learn as the story progresses, was a transformative experience for Gil. All he did was walk around and look around and distribute his water between hotels and gas stations that became farther apart as he traveled west. Walking along the side of the road, he might have noticed birds for the first time. Millet writes: “In his previous life, before he left New York, he had not noticed birds. He had thought of her as one might think of butterflies or flowers—glimpses of life elsewhere.”

Now he saw raptors hovering overhead as he walked, and felt solidarity in their loneliness. And then in Arizona, the birds in his yard: mourning doves nesting in his security lights, quail in the backyard, hummingbirds at the feeder the neighbor brought. He is interested in the birds in part because they are descended from dinosaurs, but as he settles into his new life, the birds become symbols of Gil’s personal transformation as well as the story’s connection to the universal.

Also during his walk, the 2016 election took place, ushering in an era of dispute over politics and values. Modern America is a place where environmental issues are discussed. Fascist ideas have become something people overlook. Gun violence continues to increase. These shape the setting of Gil’s new world in Arizona.

Shortly after his arrival, a family moves into the glass house next door. Little did he know when he bought his apartment that he could see into the neighboring house as clearly as if he were looking into an aquarium. He can see all the rooms apart from the bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as her courtyard. Though he doesn’t want to, he can’t help but watch her.

Soon after being awkward and neighborly in all the usual encounters, they become friends. Gil does the mom favors, plays with the son, helps the daughter with a project, and drinks with the dad. His life becomes entangled with that of the neighbors and with the neighborhood. The neighbors introduce him to a woman, Sarah, who he dates, although he fears he might screw things up with her and damage their friendship. He begins volunteering at a women’s shelter and makes a new friend who is also interested in birds.

Gil, who lost his parents in childhood and lives on a trust, has never had to work. So he struggled through his adulthood trying to contribute. Although this problem has dogged him all the way to Arizona, the connections Gil forms with the people around him make his life more meaningful. With them he confronts many of the problems that plague us all, such as fascist politics and gun violence, and he must decide what to tolerate and how to act.

Dinosaurs is a subtle, character-driven story about modern life and becoming a good person. Millet is a thoughtful and skilled writer with clean, crisp prose that considers big questions. She effortlessly places the small dramas in her character’s life into a larger context.

Millet is the author of 15 novels and short story collections and has been widely acclaimed as a persuasive voice in American literature. Her previous book, The Children’s Bible, which was a finalist for a National Book Award, is difficult to follow. “Dinosaurs” is quieter but no less able to keep readers hooked and curious.

reviewer Melinda Copp is a Bluffton-based author.