The Dutch House – Ann Patchett

100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: For decades, the Dutch House has loomed large for siblings Danny and Maeve. Unfairly forced out by their stepmother at a young age, they spend the next five decades relying on each other to build lives that, while successful, lack fulfillment. Over the years, the Dutch House becomes a talisman and serves as a springboard to recount the experiences that shaped their lives, but in revisiting the past, they learn that no two memories are the same.   

Expectation: A multi-generational family drama.

Reality: A fantastic study of two siblings that never give up on each other.

Recommended For: Fans of sometimes sweet, sometimes sad and sometimes funny stories about family.

Why I Read It: My husband (and many Goodreads friends) loved it.

My Take:

“Who says you can’t go home?” – Bon Jovi, 2005

My parents resided in what I consider my childhood home for 27 years, and while I always liked the house it was just that – a house. Then it was sold, and I didn’t get to see it one last time.

Now sometimes when I can’t sleep, I’ll close my eyes and go room-by-room in a virtual tour recounting the furniture, fixtures and how we used the rooms – all very telling of the era of the house I hold most dear.

And why five years into it becoming another family’s residence did I create a Zillow alert to be notified if it ever goes on the market? To me, it no longer feels like “just a house,” rather it’s more like a family member we lost.

“The Dutch House” perfectly captures that feeling – one I can assume I’m not alone in sharing – and it is one of the many ways Patchett expertly explores how shared experiences are sometimes inextricably linked to certain places even if the memories of when, how and what happened there are different.

While I didn’t always love the characters of Danny and Maeve, I loved their relationship and reading how it evolved and changed over time. It was easy to relate to the goading, unsolicited life advice and fierce loyalty that comes from an older sibling – especially a sister – and thankfully that made up the core of the story.

I found the rest of the novel a little all over the board. Since it spans such a long period of time, it’s only natural that some of the characters and plot points won’t hit the mark, and for me that’s about the last third of the novel.

The re-emergence of three characters (Andrea, Fluffy and Elna) that were written-off so early and so frequently by Danny and Maeve get way too much page-time at the end, which creates some unneeded drama between the two and dilutes the emotional hit of the final events.

Still, this is probably one of my favorites reads of 2020, mainly because of Patchett’s beautiful writing and her many astute observations on growing up and looking back (see below). In that respect this reminded me of “A Little Life,” but without as much tragedy and violence.

I’d also like to encourage this as an audiobook listen, because Tom Hanks is the narrator, so, yeah, that’s pretty much as good as it’s going to get.

“But we overlay the present onto the past. We look back through the lens of what we know now, so we’re not seeing it as the people we were, we’re seeing it as the people we are, and that means the past has been radically altered.”
 – Ann Patchett, “The Dutch House”

“There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you'd been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you're suspended knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.”
– Ann Patchett, “The Dutch House”

Rating (story): 4/5 stars

Rating (narration): 5/5 stars

Format: Audiobook (library loan)

Dates read: June 23 – June 28, 2020

Multi-tasking: Okay, but you may miss some of the brilliant prose.