Patchett's prose is confident, unfussy and unadorned. I can't pluck out one sentence worth quoting, but how effective they are when woven togetherthese translucent lines that envelop you like a spider's web. It can feel old-fashioned: her style, her attachment to a very traditional kind of storytellinga vision of the novel as a Dutch house, with a clarity and transparency of purpose and method, a refusal of narrative tricksiness…"The love between humans is the thing that nails us to this earth," Patchett wrote in her memoir This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage a belief her new novel shares but shades with caution. There's no missing the statement's brutal, brilliant ambivalence.
The New York Times - Parul Sehgal
★ 07/01/2019
A 1920s mansion worms into the lives of the broken family that occupies it in another masterly novel from Patchett (Commonwealth ). In 1945, Brooklyn-born real-estate entrepreneur Cyril Conroy purchases the Dutch House in Elkins Park, outside Philadelphia, and presents it, complete with Delft mantels, life-size portraits of the original owners, a ballroom, and staff, to his wife. She hates it. She runs away to serve the poor, abandoning her 10-year-old daughter, Maeve, and three-year-old son, Danny. Five years later, Maeve and Danny meet Conroy’s second wife. The second Mrs. Conroy adores the house. When Cyril dies, she keeps it, dispossessing Maeve and Danny of any inheritance except funds for Danny’s education, which they use to send Danny to Choate, Columbia, and medical school. Grown-up Danny narrates, remembering his sister as an unswerving friend and protector. For Patchett, family connection comes not from formal ties or ceremonies but from shared moments: Danny accompanying his father to work, Danny’s daughter painting her grandmother’s fingernails, Maeve and Danny together trying to decode the past. Despite the presence of a grasping stepmother, this is no fairy tale, and Patchett remarkably traces acts of cruelty and kindness through three generations of a family over 50 years. Patchett’s splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind. (Sept.)
The Dutch House has the richness, allusiveness, and emotional heft of the best fiction.” — Boston Globe
"As always, the author draws us close to her protagonists swiftly and gracefully." — Wall Street Journal
"Patchett’s prose is confident, unfussy and unadorned." — New York Times
“A big-hearted, capacious novel...” — Chapter 16
“The Dutch House is unusual, thoughtful and oddly exciting, as well-told domestic dramas can be.” — Columbus Dispatch
“Patchett’s storytelling abilities shine in this gratifying novel.” — Associated Press
"As always, Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature." — The Guardian
"For Patchett fans who have been waiting for years, it's a worthwhile read." — Evening Standard (London)
"Ann Patchett spins a dark, compelling fairy tale in The Dutch House ." — Entertainment Weekly
"The Dutch House confirms what we've always known: Ann Patchett doesn't write a bad book." — BookPage
"This finely textured novel is made up of many such small, intimate moments, yet the effect is sweeping, grand, and lavish—and all deeply moving." — New York Journal of Books
"This is a serious and poignant story, but also a delightfully funny one." — Washington Independent Review of Books
“This richly furnished novel gives brilliantly clear views into the lives it contains.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"You won’t want to put down this engrossing, warmhearted book even after you’ve read the last page.” — NPR
“Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett’s fiction.” — New York Times Book Review
“Patchett is a master storyteller.” — O, the Oprah Magazine
“Patchett’s splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A lavishly gifted writer.” — Los Angeles Times
“Patchett writes enviable prose—fluid, simple, direct, clear, and fearless.” — Esquire
“Enchanting.” — PEOPLE Magazine , Best Books of Fall 2019
“Patchett is at her subtle yet shining finest in this gloriously incisive, often droll, quietly suspenseful drama of family, ambition, and home. . . . With echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and in sync with Alice McDermott, Patchett gracefully choreographs surprising revelations and reunions as her characters struggle with the need to be one’s true self.” — Booklist
"The Dutch House is beautifully written and often tender." — The Spectator
"A great novelist is on top form with this tale of lost family home." — The Times (London)
"Subtle mystery, psychological page-turner, Patchett's latest is a thriller." — Washington Post
"Ann Patchett spins a dark, compelling fairy tale in The Dutch House ."
"For Patchett fans who have been waiting for years, it's a worthwhile read."
Evening Standard (London)
Patchett’s storytelling abilities shine in this gratifying novel.
"Patchett’s prose is confident, unfussy and unadorned."
The Dutch House is unusual, thoughtful and oddly exciting, as well-told domestic dramas can be.
The Dutch House has the richness, allusiveness, and emotional heft of the best fiction.
"The Dutch House confirms what we've always known: Ann Patchett doesn't write a bad book."
"As always, Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature."
A big-hearted, capacious novel...
"As always, the author draws us close to her protagonists swiftly and gracefully."
"This is a serious and poignant story, but also a delightfully funny one."
Washington Independent Review of Books
"This finely textured novel is made up of many such small, intimate moments, yet the effect is sweeping, grand, and lavish—and all deeply moving."
New York Journal of Books
Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett’s fiction.
New York Times Book Review
"Subtle mystery, psychological page-turner, Patchett's latest is a thriller."
"You won’t want to put down this engrossing, warmhearted book even after you’ve read the last page.
Patchett is at her subtle yet shining finest in this gloriously incisive, often droll, quietly suspenseful drama of family, ambition, and home. . . . With echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and in sync with Alice McDermott, Patchett gracefully choreographs surprising revelations and reunions as her characters struggle with the need to be one’s true self.
Patchett is a master storyteller.
A lavishly gifted writer.
"A great novelist is on top form with this tale of lost family home."
"The Dutch House is beautifully written and often tender."
Patchett writes enviable prose—fluid, simple, direct, clear, and fearless.
Enchanting.
A lavishly gifted writer.
"Subtle mystery, psychological page-turner, Patchett's latest is a thriller."
As always, the author draws us close to her portagonists swiftly and gracefully.
Patchett is at her subtle yet shining finest in this gloriously incisive, often droll, quietly suspenseful drama of family, ambition, and home. . . . With echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and in sync with Alice McDermott, Patchett gracefully choreographs surprising revelations and reunions as her characters struggle with the need to be one’s true self.
Patchett is a master storyteller.
"Ann Patchett spins a dark, compelling fairy tale in The Dutch House ."
The Dutch House has the richness, allusiveness, and emotional heft of the best fiction.
The Dutch House is unusual, thoughtful and oddly exciting, as well-told domestic dramas can be.
"You won’t want to put down this engrossing, warmhearted book even after you’ve read the last page.
"The Dutch House confirms what we've always known: Ann Patchett doesn't write a bad book."
Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett’s fiction.
New York Times Book Review
Patchett is at her subtle yet shining finest in this gloriously incisive, often droll, quietly suspenseful drama of family, ambition, and home. . . . With echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and in sync with Alice McDermott, Patchett gracefully choreographs surprising revelations and reunions as her characters struggle with the need to be one’s true self.
As always, the author draws us close to her protagonists swiftly and gracefully.
A lavishly gifted writer.
"As always, Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature."
Patchett’s storytelling abilities shine in this gratifying novel.
"Subtle mystery, psychological page-turner, Patchett's latest is a thriller."
Patchett’s prose is confident, unfussy and unadorned.
"The Dutch House is beautifully written and often tender."
"A great novelist is on top form with this tale of lost family home."
A big-hearted, capacious novel...
"This is a serious and poignant story, but also a delightfully funny one."
Washington Independent Review of Books
"This finely textured novel is made up of many such small, intimate moments, yet the effect is sweeping, grand, and lavish—and all deeply moving."
New York Journal of Books
"For Patchett fans who have been waiting for years, it's a worthwhile read."
Evening Standard (London)
Enchanting.
Patchett writes enviable prose—fluid, simple, direct, clear, and fearless.
Patchett is a master storyteller.
This is an author that specializes in extremely legible yarns.
Patchett’s prose is confident, unfussy and unadorned.
Tom Hanks narrates this novel about Danny and Maeve, and their beloved childhood home, The Dutch House, with a restraint that admirably captures the writing’s surface calm and buried tension. Set in 1950s Philadelphia, Patchett’s first book since COMMONWEALTH feels as timeless as a fairy story, and is, in fact, satisfyingly full of classic tropes—grand house, distant father, abandoning mother, wicked stepmother, controlling wife. Hanks takes his narrative cue from Danny, who tells the story in a mix of bemusement, wonder, and nostalgia. It’s not a dramatic performance but is, instead, a sensitive and warm reading of a fine novel about love, loyalty, redemption, forgiveness, and what we will do to make the world the way we want it to be. A.C.S. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
★ 2019-05-27 Their mother's disappearance cements an unbreakable connection between a pair of poor-little-rich-kid siblings.
Like The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer or Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach, this is a deeply pleasurable book about a big house and the family that lives in it. Toward the end of World War II, real estate developer and landlord Cyril Conroy surprises his wife, Elna, with the keys to a mansion in the Elkins Park neighborhood of Philadelphia. Elna, who had no idea how much money her husband had amassed and still thought they were poor, is appalled by the luxurious property, which comes fully furnished and complete with imposing portraits of its former owners (Dutch people named VanHoebeek) as well as a servant girl named Fluffy. When her son, Danny, is 3 and daughter, Maeve, is 10, Elna's antipathy for the place sends her on the lam—first occasionally, then permanently. This leaves the children with the household help and their rigid, chilly father, but the difficulties of the first year pale when a stepmother and stepsisters appear on the scene. Then those problems are completely dwarfed by further misfortune. It's Danny who tells the story, and he's a wonderful narrator, stubborn in his positions, devoted to his sister, and quite clear about various errors—like going to medical school when he has no intention of becoming a doctor—while utterly committed to them. "We had made a fetish out of our disappointment," he says at one point, "fallen in love with it." Casually stated but astute observations about human nature are Patchett's (Commonwealth , 2016, etc.) stock in trade, and she again proves herself a master of aging an ensemble cast of characters over many decades. In this story, only the house doesn't change. You will close the book half believing you could drive to Elkins Park and see it.
Like the many-windowed mansion at its center, this richly furnished novel gives brilliantly clear views into the lives it contains.