A review by helen_t_reads
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

In the economic boom following the Second World War, Cyril Conroy's real estate investments take his family from poverty to enormous wealth. With it he buys the Dutch House, a lavish mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. 

Danny Conroy grows up in the opulence of the Dutch House. Though his father is distant and his mother is absent, Danny has his beloved sister Maeve: Maeve, with her wall of black hair, her wit, her brilliance. The siblings grow and change as life plays out under the watchful eyes of the house's former owners, in the frames of their oil paintings. 

Then one day their father brings home Andrea, a new stepmother. Though they cannot know it, her arrival to the Dutch House sows the seed of the defining loss of Danny and Maeve's lives: exiled from the house and tossed back into the poverty from which their family rose, Danny and Maeve have only each other to count on. 

Populated with believable, well crafted characters, and written in captivating, beautiful prose, this is a story told in four parts and explores themes of grief, abandonment, and family breakdown; love, loss and forgiveness. 

The story revolves around Maeve and Danny's fixation with the past and their inability to let go of it, as well as highlighting the questionable reliability of memory. 

It manages to be firmly rooted in the real world, yet has fairytale and fable elements woven throughout it. All the requisite ingredients of these genres are to be found: the aloof, uninvolved father; two abandoned siblings with only each other to rely on; a lost mother; the extremely wicked stepmother; the loyal and caring servants and retainers; and a Fairytale Castle setting. 

It's a beautifully written, poignant, and  emotional family story, which hooked me in from the beginning and completely absorbed me. For days after, I found myself thinking about the characters, and how their all-consuming obsession with their past, and what they had lost, entirely shaped their future lives. 

Ann Patchett's focus is very much on character rather than action and plot twists, so if you're like me and enjoy a character driven novel, it is definitely one for you.