'The Dutch House'

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett was our online book for discussion this month for the Laughing Ladies Book Club. Once again, a divided group of readers. Three of us liked the book, one did not, and one was ambivalent.

Highest rank was a 4.5 and lowest was a 2, but overall it came in at 3.6. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and actually read it this month, but listened to it several months ago. The audiobook was narrated by Tom Hanks, and I really enjoyed his reading of it.

I really like Ann Patchett's writing style and have read several of her books--this was her 8th book. I would rank Dutch House up there with Bel Canto which I read years ago. Commonwealth was her most autobiographical, and it is a more difficult book to read, with a very dysfunctional family. She has very descriptive writing and it always brings me in. I liked the two main characters a lot, while one of our readers didn't like any of the characters in the book. The strong relationship between Danny and his sister Maeve really made the book for me, and a couple of other members. Their mother abandoned them when Danny was just 3 and his sister Maeve was only 10. Their mothers leaving was hard on all of them, including their dad, who was never really that present to them afterwards. Their sense of abandonment cemented their relationship with each other, and made the family home feel like a family member as well.

Patchett does a great job exploring relationships and how much situations in our lives develop who we become. Both siblings try to win their fathers approval, and never really connect with him. The father makes a bad second marriage, marrying the evil stepmother--think Cinderella. Then the father dies an early death by heart attack, after which, the stepmother abandons them as well--kicking them out of their family home, which somehow makes the Dutch House take on even more significance. In their reality, all they really have to depend on is each other, and they are devoted to each other. Danny eventually marries, but his bond with his wife is never as strong as the bond with his sister.

Their mother unexpectedly turns up after they are adults, and how Maeve and Danny deal with it are extremely different. Most of us sided with Danny on how we would have felt had it been our life. Maeve said that people are always more critical of a woman leaving their family than they are a man, and perhaps that is true, but neither situation is good.

In the end, Danny begins to get a bit more introspective on his life and how he lived it. He asked his sister: "Do you think it's possible to ever see the past as it actually was?" I know that even in my family, we all can remember different events and situations similarly, but we all have our own take on them--we see them through our own filters.

We did have a lot of discussion on this book, and I for one would recommend it. If you have an option, listen to the recorded book with Tom Hanks.

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