The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
A Book Review

Every once in a while, quite by accident, you stumble upon a book that you feel that has been written especially for you because it matches your tastes in such an uncanny fashion. This book was it - PERFECTION - in big bold letters and underlined 10 times and made infinitely more pleasurable by the superb narration by Tom Hanks. The old-style storytelling, a plot driven by developing relationships instead of events, the main character’s interest in real estate development and the glorious details of architecture and decor were all rolled into one delightful reading experience or in my case a listening one through the Audible App.

The central character of the book has to be The Dutch House which gets its name from the Dutch family, the Van Hoebeeks, who lived there previously, and not by virtue of its architectural style. The ornate and luxurious best house in the district serves as the vehicle through which all the familial issues of heartache, compassion, loyalty, love, marriages, desertion and obsession are played out.

This historic epic spans about five decades as it offers a multi-layered portrayal of the Conroy family. Through Danny’s voice and his recollections that jumps from past to present we learn about their mother, Elna, who left Danny and his sister to the care of their absent-minded father and their housekeeping staff while she followed her desire to pursue charitable work in India. Then, enters the stereotypic cruel stepmother, Andrea, with her two stepdaughters who kick them out of the family home as soon as she becomes a rich widow. This plot which is more like a combination of the Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel fairytales needed something to elevate it to a literary level and that’s where Ann Patchett’s incredible storytelling prowess comes in.

I am an English teacher and I am often amused by my students who feel that you need to use “big words” and the complex intricacies of a narrative to give some credibility to their creative writing piece. Ann Patchett proves that this is not true. You can still write a perfectly interesting and insightful story as she explores the poignant and hauntingly beautiful relationship between Danny and his sister, Maeve, who is seven years his elder, in such a simple and unpretentious storytelling style. Danny is the first person storyteller but his older sister whom he idolises and who is his confidante, protector, mentor and benefactor, is indisputably the heroine. There’s no verbal gymnastics, no verbose vocabulary, no convoluted syntactical constructions nor outlandish diction but what a joy to read (or listen to!).

Even though Tom Hank’s sentences roll from one into the other without the obligatory pause after a full stop, he lends so much depth, warmth and humour to the characters with the nuances he achieves through his tone, pitch, pace, inflection, intonation and pauses. Ann Patchett’s craft as a novelist is notable as she manages so wonderfully to write about mundane, everyday lives while at the same time offering the reader such an insightful commentary about the human condition. Patchett manages to arrange the fragments of this family’s history by carefully laying the pieces of past and present to form this intricately, beautiful mosaic of the human psyche that allows us to understand Danny’s profound sadness and anguish as he is protected and consoled by his older sister whom he idolises. Patchett shows an enormous amount of restraint in painting even the toxic characters with subtle nuances instead of elaborate and unnecessary description. The everyday dialogue speaks for themselves.

Through Danny’s narration, characters and events are given details which creates suspense and life’s big questions are laid bare. These larger life’s misdemeanours positions the readers to give answers to the questions that are raised: can Danny’s mum be forgiven for abandoning her two, little children to pursue her dream of becoming a modern day Mother Teresa, is there such a thing as a prodigal daughter returning in society, should Danny have made his sister happy by dutifully pursuing a medical career and becoming a doctor while his heart was really in buying and developing real estate and can we ever get rid of the shackles that bind us to our past. So while the author raises questions but doesn’t provide the answers, one thing she does reminds us is that it’s impossible 'to ever see the past as it actually was' when viewed from older, more mature minds.

This is Ann Patchett’s eighth novel and I am a bit embarrassed to confess that it is my first book by this talented storyteller. I will repair this oversight in the not too distant future by sinking my teeth in another one of her novels soon.