A book review of The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.
A beautiful, beautiful book. Read it.
Danny and Maeve are brother and sister growing up in Pennsylvania in a plush and grand three storey country house built at the beginning of the 20th century by the VanHoebeeks. Just after Danny was born their mother, who came from a very poor background and struggled to live with such overwhelming grandeur, packed her bags one day and left. Their father, a cold and distant man, left the children to themselves. Danny, who tells the tale was, to all intents and purpose, brought up, at first by their housekeepers, but then by the diabetic Maeve. Their lives were happy, they were loved, even if not by their own father.
But then their father remarried.
Andrea brought two daughters with her, very young at the time, this being when Maeve was at college, and part of the marriage deal was that Andrea wasn’t there to bring up Danny, just her own. He was, in effect, thrown out, and went to live with Maeve in her tiny, one bedroom college accommodation. He slept in the bed, she on the sofa.
Things went downhill from there.
A vivid book, in which the house is as much a character as the people. Told in the first person by Danny as reflections on his past, it’s funny at times, and heartbreaking at times . The characters stand out from the page, a great skill, at which Anne Patchett excels. Bel Canto, one of Anne’s earlier books, is a another wonderful piece of storytelling and has similar levels of characterisation, but with a larger cast. An expansive and diverse cast who are trapped in a villa in an unnamed country, although it appears to be Latin or South America, when terrorists overrun it.
The Dutch House’s narrative unfolds, not in chronological order, but slides back and forth between episodes in Danny’s and Maeve’s lives. In the hands of a less gifted writer that could become episodic and even confusing, but in Ann’s hands it’s seamless, and renders the tale more intimate. After all, in real life, when memories of our past arise they’re not in chronological order but bits and pieces, snapshots, seemingly pulled out of our head from triggers; a piece of music, a film, even a smell.
Another interesting aspect of the book and my only reservation is that, for reasons that become obvious, the period in which it’s set begins shortly after the second world war and runs up to approximately the early ‘90s. I say approximately because there are long periods of the book when you are unsure as to what period you’re in. Then suddenly the draft for the Vietnam war would be mentioned. You could be forgiven for reading the entire book and thinking that it was contemporary. It can be a little disorientating at times. But that’s being my usual picky self.
Finally, the story may be being narrated by Danny, but Maeve is the star of the show. She leaps from the page in high definition, so clearly that I found myself wishing that I could meet her. She’s a remarkable woman.
One of my best books of the year so far, excellent.
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