Buttonwood

Buttonwood is a place, a compromise, a state of bliss. But it lies hidden in the secret recesses of a man's heart as a testament to the fragile strength of human bonds. This robust novel pulsates with the inner desperations of its characters. It tears away the frauds of their daily living and reveals the explosive truths behind the facade they show the world. Paul Maitland was a war hero, destined for a colorful career as a flier; instead he works in an automobile plant and maintains the house on Clark Street for his widowed mother and impoverished aunt. Jessie, his mother, fills her crowded days with good works, comforting the sick and forlorn, but has no notion of the peculiar living arrangements of her son or the impending collapse of her daughter's marriage. Jessie, Aunt Charlie and Sister Annie know that Paul has a "woman," a tramp most likely, yet never suspect the amazing truth, that he is sole mainstay of seven dissimilar people, none of whom has any legal claim to such devotion. Suzy, Jo's confused teen-age daughter, accepts his role as a father but wonders why he won't marry her mother. Paul cannot explain. Only one woman really knows why, and she is least accessible. The uninhibited friend, Bowman, thinks he has the answer — but does he? Posed against this enigma is the equally strange affair of Annie and Nick, who love each other tenderly but find marriage a painful experience with no solution. In this most searching of all her novels, Maritta Wolff proves herself a gifted creator, one who knows well the voices, hearts and minds of her diverse characters and how to make these common people seem remarkably uncommon.