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At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.… (more)
This audiobook was narrated by the fantastic Tom Hanks. While the narration was a highlight, making the experience more enjoyable, the book itself felt much longer than it was. There were long stretches where it seemed like nothing significant happened or evolved. The story had its original moments, but overall, it was boring. The main characters were likable enough, but I didn't fall in love with them. I was impressed with the seamless transition from childhood to late adulthood. The way the siblings leaned on each other throughout life and alternated between leading and supporting each other as their lives unfolded was nice. I'm not entirely sure what the main theme was – perhaps it was about not living your life out of spite or holding grudges for decades. The scene building was fine, and the dialogues were believable, but it wasn’t captivating for me. ( )
gonna give this a solid 3 stars, but tom hanks as the narrator contributed to the generous score. and the time of the year, as the book isn't necessarily christmas or holiday themed at all but it has a winter/christmas movie feel to me. i personally found many of the characters to be annoying and the plot seemed to not really go anywhere interesting, but the end was satisfying enough that i can't be too mad and the great narration means i don't feel like i wasted my time ( )
This is the fourth book I have read by Ann Patchett, and so far my least favourite. Having said that I still enjoyed it (however, it would be very difficult for any book to match Bel Canto or State of Wonder, both of which were wonderful and the former of which is in my top ten reads of all time).
This book is narrated by Danny, son of businessman Cyril Conroy. Danny and his sister, the headstrong and willful Maeve grew up largely without their mother, who left them to ease her social conscience and work for those less fortunate. Unfortunately, their father’s second wife Andrea hated them and wanted no part of them in her and Cyril’s lives, meaning that Danny and Maeve largely relied on each other for family.
The story goes back and forth in time, from childhood to current day where Danny is an adult and we see how the people who have left him and Maeve have affected their lives, and how as a result the siblings were incredibly close, to the point where it affected their other relationships.
I did like the book, but I hated Andrea (who was written as a hateful character) and I hated Danny and Maeve’s actual mother, even though she left ostensibly to do good with her life. I feel like she could have done good without abandoning her children.
If you like Ann Patchett’s other books, I think I would recommend this one; I’m not sorry I read it and I enjoyed it overall, but it did take a while to get going. ( )
The first time our father brought Andrea to the Dutch House, Sandy, our housekeeper, came to my sister's room and told us to come downstairs.
Quotations
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.
Sandy and Jocelyn served champagne at the reception, wearing matching black uniforms with white collars and cuffs that Andrea had bought for the occasion. “We look like matrons at a women's penitentiary,” Jocelyn said, holding up her wrists.
The only way to really understand what money means is to have been poor... (p. 19)
But we overlay the present onto the past. We look back trough 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. (pp. 44-45)
The point, I wanted to say, was that we shouldn't still be driving to the Dutch House, and the more we kept up with our hate, the more we were forever doomed to live out our lives in a parked car on VanHoebeek Street. (p. 73)
There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you've been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to back on is not yet in place, and for a moment you're suspended, having nothing and no one, not even yourself. (pp. 120-121)
Penn Station looked like a feedlot and we, the anxious travelers, were the cows standing in pools of melted slush, bundled up and pressed together in the overheated terminal. (pp. 124-125)
Boys in Columbia went to class, and boys in Harlem went to war, a reality not suspended for a friendly Saturday pick-up game. (p. 145)
They clung to their bitterness, both of them. (pp. 238-239)
We had made a fetish out of our misfortune, fallen in love with it. (p. 255)
Men leave their children all the time, and the world celebrates them for it. The Buddah left and Odysseus left and no one gave a shit about their sons. They set out on their noble journeys to do whatever the hell they wanted to do and thousands of years later we're still singing about it. (p. 297)
But when you think of saints, I don't imagine any of them made their families happy (p. 327)
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
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Book description
Ann Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth, delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
Haiku summary
La mère part en Inde, La belle-mère les jette dehors Seule reste la maison (Tiercelin)
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