Scan barcode
A review by lisabage
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
5.0
I don't enjoy dramatic family sagas. I like my fiction plot-driven not character-driven. And yet, this generational family drama drew me in from the beginning and never let go. Such a treat to spy into the lives of this brother and sister as they go from children to middle-aged without ever letting go of their childhood traumas. The characters were interesting enough on their own, but the best character of all was the relationship between them, as vibrant as a character itself.
A few things that resonated for me:
* Danny coming to understand that he'd never been curious about his parents as people, never asked enough questions of them. How common that a child never even recognizes their parents are people until it's too late. [“There would never been an end to all the things I wished I'd asked my father. After so many years I thought less about his unwillingness to disclose and more about how stupid I'd been not to try harder.”]
* Both Maeve and Danny starting to see that they'd lived two different childhoods. It's always surprising to me, and yet so true, that children can grow up in the same house with the same parents and experience things so differently. [“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.”]
* The way it all made sense and seemed inevitable. [“We had stepped into the river that takes you forward.”]
I wonder if Patchett intended the linden trees to symbolize more than just a simple barrier to separate the house from the rest of the world. I looked up "linden tree" to see what they looked like and noted that it had been used as a sedative, to build shields for the Vikings, and to shade the Germanic people during judicial hearings to restore justice and peace. Pretty strong ties to shielding the family, sedating the senior Conroy from seeing what was happening, to restoring peace with the combined family at the end.
A few things that resonated for me:
* Danny coming to understand that he'd never been curious about his parents as people, never asked enough questions of them. How common that a child never even recognizes their parents are people until it's too late. [“There would never been an end to all the things I wished I'd asked my father. After so many years I thought less about his unwillingness to disclose and more about how stupid I'd been not to try harder.”]
* Both Maeve and Danny starting to see that they'd lived two different childhoods. It's always surprising to me, and yet so true, that children can grow up in the same house with the same parents and experience things so differently. [“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.”]
* The way it all made sense and seemed inevitable. [“We had stepped into the river that takes you forward.”]
I wonder if Patchett intended the linden trees to symbolize more than just a simple barrier to separate the house from the rest of the world. I looked up "linden tree" to see what they looked like and noted that it had been used as a sedative, to build shields for the Vikings, and to shade the Germanic people during judicial hearings to restore justice and peace. Pretty strong ties to shielding the family, sedating the senior Conroy from seeing what was happening, to restoring peace with the combined family at the end.