The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett

An exploration of family bonds, function, dysfunction, and cycling heritage across generations.

“The Dutch House,” by Ann Patchett, is the wandering narrative of Danny and Maeve Conroy as their life is, in many ways, ruined by the house they love: “The Dutch House,” which is a character in the novel as much as the initial setting and title for it. The novel opens with a critical disruption as their father, Cyril Conroy, brings Andrea Smith home to “The Dutch House,” initiating (or foreshadowing) her eventual reign in the role of a wicked stepmother. According to Danny, the narrator and a main character, “It had been Andrea’s goal for years to get inside the house.” However, the painful effect of the house has been prominent long before Andrea arrives—it was because of the house that Danny and Maeve’s mother, Elna Conroy, had left five years before.

Upon the death of Cyril, Andrea forces Danny and Maeve to leave the Dutch House, thus initiating a fixation on the house and on Andrea that lasts the rest of their lives. As a result, despite wanting to follow in the footsteps of his father as a real estate mogul, Danny goes to medical school in an extensive, if petty, act of revenge against Andrea for throwing them out. However, though Danny does graduate, he also begins his career in real estate by acting on inside information, buying land that is destined for a new university building, paralleling his father who had done the same thing with a military installation at the start of his own career. After years of idolizing his father, Danny, perhaps, does not realize how much he has become his father. He marries Celeste Norcross who, just like Andrea, is immediately at odds with Maeve. Later, just like his father did before him, he buys a house as a surprise gift for his wife, and, just like his father, he is then surprised himself when his wife does not like the gift and later leaves it behind. Danny even has two children, May (who was named after Maeve) and Kevin, who are, in many ways, just like Maeve and Danny.

Danny’s similarity to his father is brought to the forefront when, after years of sitting on the street outside the Dutch House, talking about the past, Danny and Maeve (galvanized by their mother who has come back into their life) return to the Dutch House only to have Andrea, old and senile after all these years, thinks that Danny is her long dead husband, Cyril, returned.

“The Dutch House” is a beautiful, human look into the push and pull between the past and the future.

Verdict: Ann Patchett is a genius of her medium.