From the Bookshelf of Albany Public Library…

The Dutch House

Ann Patchett

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What Members Thought

Oct 16, 2019 Polly-Alida rated it it was amazing

Shelves: getrecs-lit

I don't know why I haven't read anything by this author before, despite being very aware of her work. This was a wonderful introduction. Fascinating to have the house as such a central character of the book. All the characters felt true to me. Totally lost patience with the siblings visiting the street outside the house for so many years, yet it fit the story so well. The return of the mother was such a turning point for the story. (Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy) ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Jenn rated it really liked it

I cannot say that I agree with friends (and other reviewers) who are calling this Patchett’s best work to date. While the book does have that ineffable quality of sticking with you after you’ve put it down, which to me a generally a great attribute—perhaps even the one I most look for in a book, it also has incredible dullness about it. One reviewer here described it as at times riveting but also at times incredibly boring, and I tend to agree. I believe that to some extent this is purposeful. A I cannot say that I agree with friends (and other reviewers) who are calling this Patchett’s best work to date. While the book does have that ineffable quality of sticking with you after you’ve put it down, which to me a generally a great attribute—perhaps even the one I most look for in a book, it also has incredible dullness about it. One reviewer here described it as at times riveting but also at times incredibly boring, and I tend to agree. I believe that to some extent this is purposeful. After all, the book is three hundred plus pages of a narrator (Danny) simply reflecting on his life, and while his life was far from ordinary there are sections of book that start to wander into “so what?” territory. The other part of the book’s “slowness” is that I would say the main character isn’t Danny, or his sister Maeve, but the house itself. It’s really the house that makes this book stick with you, the house that embeds itself into the psyche, the house that started to enter into my sleeping life. I’m left wanting desperately for this house to exist as a museum somewhere so that I might enter it. And as wonderful as that depiction is, it ends up leaving many of the other characters feeling flat and almost not of this world. The mother, for example, is she a saint as the hired help all claim? Or is she a terrible mother? Most likely she is both, which the book gets at in the end; however, we are given no evidence to collect toward a vote for her “sainthood.” The women hired to help also feel like caricatures. I think this in part due to the fact that the book, while set in a specific time period feels like it’s not set in a particular time at all. While the book supposedly brings us up to the 1990s, it never feels that way. There are never any details that make it feel like time is passing and becoming more contemporary. In this way the hired help feels not like women from the mid-20th century but more like women from the mid-19th century. Even as they help nanny/raise Danny’s own kids, there’s no indication that this is a modern family. So much has gone into bringing the house to life that other details are lacking. ...more

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Jun 06, 2020 Stephanie O'Connell rated it it was amazing

I love a good full circle story and this didn’t disappoint! Audiobook version is read by Tom Hanks! I can’t imagine anyone else reading this ❤️

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Apr 05, 2021 Mirkat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Audio narrated by Tom Hanks. I actually switched back and forth between the audio and the ebook.

This is a book I may never have stumbled across, were it not the April read for my library's fiction book club. Yay, book clubs!

For me, one of the fun things about this book is that the main character grows up in Elkins Park, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. I grew up in the next suburb over, Cheltenham, so I was familiar with place references in the book. Though I was mildly grumpy that the main charact Audio narrated by Tom Hanks. I actually switched back and forth between the audio and the ebook.

This is a book I may never have stumbled across, were it not the April read for my library's fiction book club. Yay, book clubs!

For me, one of the fun things about this book is that the main character grows up in Elkins Park, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. I grew up in the next suburb over, Cheltenham, so I was familiar with place references in the book. Though I was mildly grumpy that the main character, Danny, went to Bishop McDevitt, a local Catholic high school, rather than my alma mater, Cheltenham High School (go panthers)! I believe the author's reasoning was that a wealthy Catholic in Elkins Park would send his kids to Catholic schools, but CHS had wealthy families, and my bestie in high school came from a wealthy Catholic family in Elkins Park. So there!

Anyway. The Dutch House in the title is where the main character Danny and his family live. After serving in World War II, Danny's father, Cyril Conroy, makes a quick fortune in real estate, and purchases the house and all its contents as a surprise to his wife, Elna. The house had been custom built by a Dutch family, the VanHoeBeeks, whose portraits and possessions continued to occupy the grand three-story home. Unfortunately, Elna did not love the house, and she left her husband and children when Maeve was ten and Danny was three. Andrea first comes to the house when Danny is eight and Maeve is 15. It is fairly clear that she has "come to see the house," which is locally famous. The house appears to be her motive for eventually marrying Cyril. The wedding occurs when Maeve is 18 and Danny is 11. The wedding brings to Maeve and Danny not only a stepmother but two young stepsisters, Norma and Bright.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I will share that the book spans across decades, tracing Danny's life from a toddler in the Dutch House to an adult with grown children. Along the way, there are scenes of Maeve and Danny dissecting their past in the house, their early memories, and attempting to unravel family mysteries. The central mysteries are unraveled in surprising ways, and along the way I grew to love the central characters in the book, Danny and his protective big sister Maeve. ...more

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