Finalist for the Pulitzer PrizeNew York Times Bestseller | A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick | A New York Times Book Review Notable Book | TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2019Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, The Washington Post; O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Refinery29, and BuzzfeedAnn Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling … NPR, The Washington Post; O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Refinery29, and Buzzfeed
Ann Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth, delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.
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 unshakeable 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.
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Loved the character development
Interesting take on memory and family. Did not like ending which I found too pat.
Loved this family saga story and the generational issue of wealth and poverty – seemingly tied to house in Philadelphia.
This is such an interesting book. It’s quite slow paced but also time moves very quickly (a curious dichotomy, I know). The whole book covers the course of some 5 decades, but just snatches of story are told, only the most relevant to understanding why each person became who they became. Told from Danny’s POV, he goes back and forth between distant past and not-so-distant past to tell the story of his family and the house that ruined (and ultimately redeemed) them.
The story really outlines how selfishness can turn you bitter and that life can be richer when we let things go rather than hold on to them. It details the importance of family, strong connections—both with the family you were born into and the one you choose to join when you marry—and love. Most especially love. So many times I thought things could have turned out differently if someone had chosen to love and let go instead of begrudge and hold on to grievances. Also, talk to your loved ones now. Ask the hard questions. Learn how to listen and hear what they say to you, even if it’s hard to hear. Try to understand the actions done out of love and solve mysteries when the people who loved them are still alive. And most definitely never buy a house without talking to your wife first.
I really liked Danny. Of course, being told in his voice, maybe we just got (for the most part) the best bits of him. But there is also some weakness there; he was definitely not perfect. I loved his relationship with Maeve and think sibling bonds like that are so special. I don’t think those bonds should precede the importance of our spouses and children, and I saw a lot of how psychologically he relied on Maeve, cling to her in an almost unhealthy way, to make up for his lack of a mother. (Which, coincidentally, I agree with Danny about her. What kind of mother abandons her husband and children because she wants to go help people? How did she really not think her young children would need her? Why didn’t she ever come back? I was a little more on Danny’s side with that one, though I really admired Maeve’s willingness to forgive and welcome.)
Cyril (father) was pretty darn clueless. I almost felt bad for him. But also, he was kind of selfish, going after what he wanted without thinking about repercussions. Fluffy was so interesting and I really ended up liking her. I have nothing good to say about Andrea. I felt so bad for Norma and Bright. Jocelyn and Sandy are so amazing and I loved how they swept in for Maeve for Danny when they needed someone. I kind of liked Celeste, though I would have liked her better if she could have gotten the doctor thing out of her mind and learned to like Maeve (that’s a mutual thing about both of them, actually). I’ve already said what I thought about Danny’s mother. And I adored May. She was so spunky and I unafraid.
Note: contains a couple F words and other mild swearing; talking about having sex but no details or meaning, just that it happened
Quotes I loved:
“There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’ve 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.”
This is the story of Danny and his family. After the second world war, Danny’s father who has recently become quite wealthy, buys an enormous estate called The Dutch House. His father bought the house for his wife as a surprise and soon things began to spiral out of control.
What happened to Danny and his sister Maeve over their childhood and adolscents would be a mother who left them, a father who died, and a step mother that wanted nothing to do with them. Despite their issues, they prevailed and clung desparately to each other even into adulthood as Danny married and had his own family. In the end, their lives come full circle with their family and The Dutch House.
This was a fair book. I think my favorite part of it is that the audiobook was narrated by Tom Hanks. It was fun to hear his voice tell the story. The story itself requires some concentration because the story flits around to past and present as Danny fills in the holes of his life and his time in The Dutch House. It is a complex story that held me to the end. I won’t give anything else away, but just want to say that what happens in the end is a bit unbelievable and just seems like the author wanting to bring a somewhat happier end to their story.
I don’t say pass it up. I say try it out and see for yourself.
I was captivated by this story and could not stop listening to it. Tom Hanks did a great job narrating. After finishing, I really pondered why I liked it so much…was it unique, were these characters extraordinary? No, just a beautiful telling of the bond and love between a younger brother and sister. They live in the “famous” Dutch House … a privileged life. A house their father was proud to buy and others envied. A house their mother never felt at ease in and eventually left it abandoning her children. Later, their father remarries to a younger woman Andrea w/ 2 daughters. Although Andrea was not exactly the evil stepmother she was not really a mother or support figure for Danny and Maeve and eventually cast them out. Throughout it all Maeve and Danny are very close and are always there for each other.
I loved the story and I especially enjoyed Tom Hank’s narration.
The Dutch House is a story about interconnected lives and the impact of unintended consequences. The two siblings, who the story is focused on, walk paths of twists and turns, and yet stay devoted to help each other regardless the circumstance. I had a hard time putting it down, a great beach read!
I listened to the audio version of this book and Tom Hanks does a fantastic job with it. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it so much just reading it on my own. It revolves around a brother and sister, Danny and Maeve, and their strong relationship over the years and how their family home the Dutch House and what transpired there affected their lives into adulthood.
The Dutch House of the title is an extravagant architectural construction that some are drawn to and others try their best to escape from. In fact the house exerts such a strong influence on the people who live there it is the dominant ‘character’ in the story. We follow the lives of two children – Danny and Maeve growing up in the house in the 1050s. Told their mother has run away ‘to India’, they are raised mostly by two loyal servants. Rattling around in this vast house, Maeve becomes a substitute parent for her younger brother and their strong bond means they rarely let other people come close. Even after they are forced to leave the house, its memories and unfulfilled possibilities continue to draw them back to gaze at the house from afar.
This is without a doubt a beautifully written book – its various timelines expertly woven together. My only criticism is that towards the end the story took on a fairytale quality that, for me, didn’t sit well with the realism of the rest of the book.
Such an amazing book – the main character in this story is not a person, but a house! And what a house is was! This is a story of a rags to riches dysfunctional family who love each other but have trouble communicating their feelings, stories, and truths. The author brings the house to life, making it a living, breathing thing of great value to all who happen to encounter it’s grandeur. I listened to this as an Audiobook and enjoyed Tom Hanks narrating as the main “living” character, Danny Conroy, whose father purchased the house and moved his young family in during the earlier part of the 20th century.
The story centers around Danny, his older sister Maeve and their trials growing up in the “house” and consequent loss of their mother and living with their negligent father. The story spans many years and focuses on the growth of the two main characters as they make their own way growing up after they are kicked out of the house by their stepmother after the loss of their father.
I highly recommend this excellent work of fiction to anyone looking to read a story of the coming of age amid great trials and tribulation.
Vivid and beautifully written.
bitter sweet book about relationships centered on one house.
A memorable, well-written novel that spans fifty years in the lives of two families and the three women who worked for them in the elegant mansion known as the Dutch House. After their mother abandons them to their cold and distant father, Maeve Conroy looks after her younger brother Danny. Though they are forced to leave the Dutch House when their father dies, the house remains an important touchstone in their lives, eventually bringing them full circle in this touching story about love and forgiveness.
What I particularly appreciate in this novel is how the characters were angry and then…let go their anger. That’s not supposed to happen in fiction. Anger builds and creates conflict and drama and sets that drama and conflict in motion and thus you have an exciting story. People don’t let go. People don’t evolve. People don’t behave well. And thus you have tragedy. I also like that this different approach to people and their emotions doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen to these same people—that there weren’t divorces or disappointments or deaths. But in critical ways—in the ways we can control our responses to what happens to us—these main characters were models of a sort and people I wanted to spend time with.
As with other Pratchett novels I have read, the characters live in a privileged world of resources: money, education, and a socialized understanding of art and beauty. I assume this is the world the author knows best, and so she writes about that world, and she writes about it with humor and compassion and depth. I’m glad, of course, that there are other authors writing about other worlds, maybe ones I resonate with more. I felt quite like a visitor in this novel, rather than at home. But literature is about visiting, too.
I loved it. Maeve and Danny’s story had me gripped – Maeve was such a trooper she is the big sister everybody wants (I think she was maybe inspired by my big sister!). This tackles themes such as how we deal with grief and injustice and why we get into the relationships we do and the careers we didn’t want. It looks not only at parenting, sibling relationships, step-parents, inheritance but a billion other things all wrapped up in fabulous characters and an equally fabulous setting – The Dutch House itself. I could only marvel at how Ann Patchett does timelines. Her story-telling is not linear but it’s not confusing, its massively accessible and when the forward motion of the plot is interrupted to tell us something in the past, it does not jar, but feels perfectly placed. This is a book for readers to adore and for writers to feel jealous about.
If you enjoy novels about siblings this is one of the better ones I’ve read. It’s refreshing to see the protectiveness this sister and her younger brother have for each other, especially considering their circumstances where it seems the only ones they can really count on are each other. Had their mother not left them when they were young and had their father taken a more active role in their lives, their relationship might have been very different. But the conflicts they face with their callous, self serving, controlling stepmother draw them closer to each other and set them on a path where they are determined not to allow their painful experiences to define them.
The backdrop for their life stories is a magnificent mansion that their father buys as a surprise for their mother when she is still a part of their family. The house itself has a fascinating history and plays an important role in their lives while they are living there in their childhood as well as after they are evicted by their stepmother. The house is such an integral part of the novel that it’s almost like another one of the characters.
This is a dark tale that explores the ramifications of growing up in a dysfunctional family and the emotional scars that never really heal.
Unlike the reviewers quoted on the back cover of The Dutch House, I found this novel lacking, having expected another excellent novel like Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, one of my favorite books. While the writing is at this author’s usual high level, it cannot overcome the story’s numerous flaws.
I have serious doubts that a surviving spouse can legally evict a minor stepchild from the house she inherited from his father. But even if she could legally do so, the father not making any arrangements to secure the physical and/or financial future of his own children while securing those of his second wife and his stepchildren is beyond this reader’s ability to suspend his disbelief. If I had known beforehand of the narrator’s neglectfulness and choice of wallowing in victimhood, I would not have wanted to spend my reading time with him. Both the villain and the mother serving the poor are drawn as one-dimensional characters and are therefore uninteresting. Finally, the author apparently wanted to let the reader feel the atmosphere of the Dutch House, but this reader felt the need to skip several of the minute descriptions as to dress, furniture, architecture and the like that seemed to go on ad infinitum.
The novel as a whole simply did not hold together for this reader.
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Peter Bernhardt, Author: The Stasi File, 2011 ABNA Quarter Finalist; Kiss of the Shaman’s Daughter [sequel]; Red Romeo;
http://tinyurl.com/a7rnpql – http://sedonauthor.com – https://tinyurl.com/ycyvps3b
Unusual plot!
loved the book.Interesting story and was so much fun to read