A review by sarasbooks
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The dutch house tells the story of a family through the course of five decades. Cyril Conroy brings his family from poverty to wealth through his real estate empire. He buys a mansion, the dutch house, which will have a big impact on his wife and children. 

The story is told by the younger son, Danny. And what is especially remarkable throughout the book is his bond with his older sister, Maeve. They both admire and look out for each other in a beautiful way. Their closeness and open and sincere relationship was really what made me like the book and tear up. They help each other deal with their past, their fears, their regrets. I love reading about siblings dynamics and this one was probably the most beautiful and special one I have ever read about.

I also loved Danny and Maeve's relationship with Fluffy, the nanny, Sandy, the housekeeper and Jocelyn, the cook.

The story moves back and forth between the different timelines, which I found very interesting and worked very well with the story.

It's a story about grief, family, resentments, sacrifice, nostalgia, childhood memories.

I won't be giving it a full 5/5 rating because I thought it was slow paced and at the end I was a bit frustrated with one of the characters. I was also always expecting something exceptional to happen, like a twist. But it never did. I guess this isn't a book that is supposed to be plot-driven and exciting. Don't go into it expecting that. It's supposed to be character and emotion-driven. I think it's supposed to make you think and feel nostalgia.

"But we overlay the present onto the past. We look back through the lens of what we know now, so we're not seeing it as the people we were, we're seeing it as the people we are, and that means the past has been radically altered."

"There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you'd been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you're suspended knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself."

"Like swallows, like salmon, we were the helpless captives of our migratory patterns. We pretended that what we has lost was the house, not our mother, not our father. We pretended that what we had lost has been taken from us by the person who still lived inside."
Expand filter menu Content Warnings