The many sources that call The Transit of Venus "one of the great English-language novels of the twentieth century" say very little about its plot. You know why? Because there's nothing to it. It is a slow-developing love story with few dramatic incidents. Furthermore, Hazzard has an idiosyncratic writing style that piles on clauses and favors inanimate subjects. It shouldn't work; it should be a slog; but somehow it's great.
It's easy to see why her fellow writers gush about Hazzard: the book's success flows entirely from its stylistic effects, both the complex sentences that come at insights from an oblique angle and the "careful orchestrations of echo and rhythm" such as the repeated reports about how passersby would interpret the relationship between characters. Even I, as a casual reader, find myself wanting to read the book again to see how Hazzard pulls it off.
The Penguin Classics edition includes an insightful introduction from Lauren Groff.
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