The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - A Review

I decided to choose my next read from The New York Times Bestseller List. "The Dutch House" by Ann Patchett has been sitting in the top five of the list for a few weeks now. I then found it on the "Most Wanted" shelf at my library and decided to see what the fuss was about.

The summary on the cover of the book was vague and didn't make much sense, so I won't give you a summary. This is one of those books about humanity, about people, about relationships, about family. The book is described as a fairytale, but I'm not really sure I would describe it that way.

The book is narrated by the brother or the son, Danny. I have to note that it is always interesting to have a male narrator written by a female. It makes me wonder if this is really how he would have seen his own story and why Ann Patchett didn't tell the story from Maeve's point of view instead. However, in doing the narration this way, because Danny is telling Maeve's story, too, it harkened back to one of my favorite novels, "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. It felt very similar to me in some ways even though the time and the setting were very different, the voice and narration kept bringing me back to Cather's writing.

The writing was beautiful. There were a lot of poignant quotes about the past and the effect it has on our present. Other thoughtful themes were childhood, home, family, mothers, forgiveness, and love.

Parts of this book broke my heart and other parts warmed it. I really feel like it is a timeless novel and one that can feel like home to many.

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