The Dutch House
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
Author: Ann Patchett | Publisher: Harper Collins
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Rating: 4 / 5
Big thanks to Libro.fm and Harper Collins for the advanced listening copy of this audiobook!
“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.”
If you keep up with the world of recent book releases, you’ve probably heard by now that The Dutch House’s audiobook is narrated by Tom Hanks. And yes, I heard you just go, “oOoOoOoh.” Your reaction is entirely appropriate. This audiobook is glorious.
The story itself, too, is beautifully written and some really top-notch literary fiction. If you’ve read any other books by Ann Patchett, this won’t surprise you either. So basically what we have here is two masters of their respective crafts coming together to make magic. MAGIC.
The Dutch House is narrated by the story’s main character, Danny. He tells us about his life, from childhood to old age, jumping forward and backward in time in creative and illuminating ways. He and his sister, Maeve, have been close his entire life. When Danny was little, their mother left — fleeing a stifling (to her) life of comfort to go “help the poor.” So they live in the Dutch House, a grand estate near Philadelphia, with their father, until he remarries a woman named Andrea who has two daughters of her own and absolutely no love at all for Danny and Maeve. (What she loves, it turns out, is the house.)
After their father tragically passes away, Andrea kicks them out, and Danny and Maeve adjust to a new reality with no one for family but one another. The rest of the story illuminates the gratingly human experience of nostalgia, old wounds, family, independence, and love.
I did find that the jumping timelines were occasionally tricky to keep up with, but once I settled into the format, I began to see how important it was to the overall story, and I think it was a really interesting literary device. I love Maeve, both as an independent character and the way Danny sees her through his own eyes. Again, this is brought to life even more beautifully through Tom Hanks’s narration.
If you are a fan of literary fiction, definitely don’t miss this one. And I highly recommend the audiobook.