Dutch House

I love Ann Patchett ‘s work. She is one of those great authors where any book you pick up written by her is bound to be excellent. This is one of those great reads. This novel is told from the child’s point of view as he looks back on his childhood trying to work out where things went astray and what happened to his mother.   The story is told in reminiscences as the two adults now sit in a car outside the Dutch House, trying to figure what happened in their lives. Their entire lives have been built around their relationship to the house. Maeve and Danny Conroy are siblings who get together at various points in their adult life and park outside the house they grew up in.  They watch the house and talk about their childhood memories.  We hear the story from Danny who tells how his mother left when he was three and his sister was ten. His father remarried and of course the new wife becomes the evil stepmother.  The house is almost like a character in the story, The Dutch House, which their father Cyril bought for their mother in a suburb of Philadelphia as a surprise gift.  It came fully furnished and ornately decorated.  Elna hates it immediately both aseptically and ethically and leaves the family for India to care for the poor.  Andrea, in love with the house courts Cyril and becomes the evil stepmother, bringing along two young daughters of her own.  She of course never likes Maeve or Danny.  Their father is not really present. This is a story of how when as adults we look back at our childhood we may realize there are so many things we did not understand at the time.  Danny is learning so much about what he missed as he takes care of his sister and gets married himself and starts a family.  So many times we realize later that we were oblivious to what was happening around us. Ann Patchett has a wonderful way with words and bringing the story to life.