At the heart of The Dutch House by Ann Patchett is the effect on two children of their mother’s disappearance when they were young. In the story, Danny and his older sister Maeve grow up in a house previously owned by a Dutch family in the state of Pennsylvania in the USA. The furniture and effects of that family remained in the house when Danny and Maeve’s father purchased it. When their father remarries, stepmother Andrea moves into the house with her two girls. From that point on, Danny and Maeve are effectively left on their own. Maeve protects and nurtures her younger brother Danny who is the story’s narrator. She continues in this role even after they both leave the Dutch House and Danny marries and has children of his own.
The Dutch House itself dominates the novel. It becomes a symbol of Maeve and Danny’s mother’s absence. As the novel progresses, we learn that the move to the Dutch House was what triggered their mother’s abandonment of the family. In adulthood, Danny and Maeve keep returning to the house, watching it from a parked car outside, talking about the rooms and the furniture and recalling the domestic staff who cared for them when they were small. Through these discussions we learn bit by bit what happened to the two of them, their mother, their father, Andrea and her daughters, all of whom were changed by their experience of the Dutch House.
Ann Patchett presents family relationships in the story with such authenticity that when I finished reading it, I felt cut out of Danny’s life and that of his family. I wanted to stay longer in the Dutch House. This was not only because I cared about the characters, but because I was enjoying the conversational style of the narrator. I found Ann Patchett’s writing to be rich in dialogue and in description, particularly of the house and the unusual objects within it. Like the Dutch House itself, objects provide important clues to both plot and character. If family relationships and a fascination with how childhood experiences affect adult life are what you enjoy reading about in a novel, you will love The Dutch House.
