The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Dutch House

by Ann Patchett

How have I never read Ann Patchett before? This book was amazing!

Danny and Maeve Conroy live in the Dutch House with their aloof and distant father, a poor serviceman turned rich property developer. Years ago their mother Elna, they are told, left them without explanation to go to India.

Their father, Cyril, starts bringing a woman to the house and eventually marries her. Andrea is stern and cold, and the mother of two young girls (Norma and Bernice aka Bright). Andrea has her eye on the Dutch House - she loves it, whereas Elna hated it - and when Cyril dies everything is left to her. She's seen to that. Maeve, who was awya at college when this happened, is called back to take Danny. Both of them are banished from the house for good.

Maeve becomes Danny's guardian. She has always been both a sister and a mother to him. She pushes him to go to medical school mostly to use up all of the money their father put into an educational trust for the four children. Danny does not want to be a doctor, but he does what she asks. What he wants to be is a property developer like his father.

During a school break Danny meets Celeste on a train and they begin an on-again off-again relationship, which leads to eventually to marriage and two kids, a girl (May) and a boy (Kevin). It is a rocky marriage since Maeve and Celeste do not like one another and Danny will do anything for Maeve. Their bond is exceptionally close.

During school breaks, and throughout their lives, Danny and Maeve visit the Dutch House together, sitting in the car outside and staring at it, reminiscing about their childhoods and all of the wrongs visited upon them. The house was despised by Elna, but loved by Cyril. Maeve feels rage over all she lost and was taken away from her while Danny's whole world revolves around his sister, whom he wants to be happy. Danny's marriage suffers from this.

When Maeve becomes seriously ill, Elna returns. Maeve is deliriously happy at this turn of events, but Danny is appalled at her timing and wants nothing to do with her. Elna has been serving the poor across the world.

The Dutch House explores familial bonds and the effects of childhood abandonment. It's themes include materialism, privilege, greed, and wealth; loyalty; nostalgia; revenge; expectations; and compassion. Maeve is living in the past and the book deals with her misfortune and how she reacts to it. For Danny the story is about following your path and the path to forgiveness. It is about love and hate, and reconciliation. 

Reconciling a father who never seemed to care, but on reflection showed his love in small ways; giving Maeve the best room in the house and instilling confidence in her, showing Danny how to make his own way and how to be a person who walks the walk, and seeing his step-daughters cared for. Reconciling a mother who goes out of her way to care for strangers while abandoning her own children and disappearing because she knew you were cared for and had all you would ever need. Reconciling a past.

The story is told by Danny, but it is just as much about Maeve, if not truly Maeve's story. Danny and his mother are opposites; she takes an interest in everyone's lives, whereas he doesn't even know the name of his housekeeper's husband. The characters in this book are all so real and natural. You feel their frustration, their anger, their slights. Patchett uses a traditional prose, nothing flashy, but the writing is exquisite, powerful. When the tragedy occurs (and we know it's coming), it hits hard and sudden. 

The Dutch House is a 5 star book because I had a visceral reaction to that moment, and could relate on a soul level to the nostalgia, the looking back at every way things went wrong and wondering how I got to this point. The story was so incredibly relatable and poignant. I feel like I could talk about this book for days and never get fully to the heart of it.