- The Good: A timeless house and an ever-evolving family
- The Bad: Weak ending; protagonists who are difficult to root for
- The Literary: Expertly drawn characters over the course of many decades
Danny Conroy and his older sister Maeve grow up in the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Their father purchased the house after a lucky investment in real estate propelled the family into wealth. But Danny and Maeve’s mother hate the house, and before long, she’s taking extended trips out of the country to assuage the guilt of the family’s new money.
So maybe Danny and Maeve don’t have the perfect life growing up, with a distant father and an absent mother, but they have each other, and it’s their unshakeable sibling bond that saves them, and maybe ultimately undoes them. We follow their story over the course of five decades. Even after pulling themselves up after some hard times, they cannot seem to be rid of the Dutch House.
For a book about rich people and rich people problems, I really like this story. I think primarily because it’s about siblings with a shared trauma, with a relationship that’s a little too close and codependent. The characters each have their own very different motivations, and as a reader you empathize with why one person forgives and another does not. And despite all the changing human relationships over time, it’s the house that remains constant, the center of gravity around which all the characters orbit.
Despite the compelling prose and engaging characters, I expected something else from the third act and ending, something more dramatic. I think the final theme is about accepting people for who they are and what they are capable of and of forgiving when you can, that life is short so enjoy your family. Which, honestly, feels saccharine and simplistic for the setup of the first and second acts.
Still, I like this book and absolutely recommend the audiobook read by Tom Hanks, and despite his bored reading of the chapter numbers, the delivery of Danny’s character is fantastic. Pick this one up if you enjoy literary family stories.