VIP Book Club: The Dutch House

BOOK REVIEW BY BRI JACKSON

THE DUTCH HOUSE

BY ANN PATCHETT

The Dutch House, a grand 1920s mansion outside of Philadelphia built by a Dutch couple, is the title character of Ann Patchett’s 2019 novel. Despite wrecking not one but two marriages, the house enchants and possesses its inhabitants over three generations and five decades. Siblings Maeve and Danny moved into the Dutch House in the late 1940s with their aloof father, guilt-ridden mother, and cook and housekeeper sisters. Shortly after Danny’s birth, their mother disappeared for what they thought was good. Their real estate investor father remarried a younger woman named Andrea who loved the Dutch House more than her husband, her step-children, and perhaps even her own two daughters. Seven years older than Danny, Maeve was already living on her own when Andrea moved in and their father died suddenly. An adolescent Danny was turned out of the Dutch House and thus began decades of Maeve and Danny doing everything in their power to drain the inheritance their father left to their stepmother by sending Danny to the most expensive boarding school, Columbia University, and then medical school. Throughout the years, Maeve and Danny would visit—maybe haunt?—the Dutch House as Danny returned from New York City for visits. Although they couldn’t see it through the screen of trees that blocked its view from the road, their roadside visits continued for well over a decade. The story continues as Maeve and Danny experience marriage, births, illness, surprise reunions, death, divorce and a final lavish party at the Dutch House. Throughout it all, the Dutch House remains an obsession for all who encounter it. The story is interesting and sad and very familiar. The Dutch House though fictional could be any house that has once captivated any of our imaginations or interest through its architecture or history. Maeve and Danny could be any pair of siblings that we have once known at some point in our lives. There are sad times and rough patches throughout the story, but that’s life, isn’t it? The Dutch House is a great read during this rainy season as we await Spring and her budding glory.

Ann Patchett lives in nashville with her husband and their dog, Sparky. She is the author of seven novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, and Commonwealth. She was the editor of Best American Short Stories, 2006, and has written three books of nonfiction. In 2019, she published her first children’s book, Lambslide, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser.