May’s Book Club Pick Of The Month

“The Dutch House” By Ann Patchett

Imagine you and a friend growing up together. The two of you went on adventures and created a fairy tale out of your childhoods. Maybe you guys masked some childhood trauma with your antics.

You grow up, you see the world, and you’re excited for the future. Life looks good for you.

Your friend, however, didn’t stray too far from home. They left once, but they came back a few years later and haven’t gone anywhere since. They didn’t have a bad life. Yet when you reunite, you go to the same places and retell the same stories over and over again.

It’s how I felt while reading Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House. It was the library’s book club pick for May. And I finally got to go to Book Club that month! I didn’t have to speculate the conversation this time!

What Is The Book About?

Danny and Maeve are wealthy siblings growing up in a Pennsylvania mansion called The Dutch House. Their father, Cyril, bought it as a present for their mother, despite her discomfort with a large house and servants.

When Danny was four, his mother left. It forced eleven-year-old Maeve to become a mother figure. She kept acting as a mother after Cyril married their stepmom, Andrea. Andrea had two daughters, and Maeve became a second mother to them, too.

When Cyril died, Maeve finished college, and Danny was fifteen. Not long after his death, Andrea throws Danny and the servants out, forcing Danny to live with his sister until he graduates.

As the decades pass, the two siblings often go back to the house and watch it from afar while sharing a pack of cigarettes. They find themselves talking about the past, working out the parts that didn’t make sense to them when they were children.

With a synopsis like that, you’d think it’d be a boring read, right? It wasn’t my favorite story, but I couldn’t put it down. Long after I finished the story, I kept thinking about it.

On The Surface, It’s The Story Of Siblings Who Can’t Move On From Their Past

I mentioned this part in my Best Books of May article. The book reminded me of that one person from high school who never mentally left. So every time you see them, you’re repeating the same high school stories over and over again. Sometimes, new details get added, but it’s still the same story.

It’s how I felt every time Maeve and Danny met up as adults in front of their old house. And then when they met up with their old nanny and housekeepers, they went around telling the same stories.

But when you look deeper, you start noticing some things. You start noticing the modern-day Hansel and Gretel feel of the story. You start noticing Danny and Maeve’s relationship turning more emotionally incestuous as they age. It’s to a point that Danny can’t make a life decision without Maeve’s input as an adult.

Staying shallow makes the story grating. I had to look further to get myself to appreciate the book. Otherwise, I would’ve abandoned it.

As you look deeply into their relationship, you see Maeve doesn’t have Danny’s best interests in mind. Sure, it looks like it is with her pushing him to be a doctor and not follow their father’s path. She pushes him to spite Andrea.

The Most Intriguing Question Of Book Club: Would The Story Be Better From Maeve’s Point Of View?

Despite Maeve’s vindictive nature, Maeve is a likable character from Danny’s point of view. She did what she wanted without her father’s approval, and survived her mother abandoning her and Danny. She made a decent life for herself.

Most people would make the best lives for themselves as revenge when someone does them wrong. Maeve, however, used Danny as revenge against Andrea.

Maeve is an interesting character, but I don’t want to get in her head. If The Dutch House was in her point of view, I’d hate it.

I’d get sick of Maeve dwelling on her mother and Andrea. It was hard to read the scenes where the characters kept revisiting the past from Danny’s point of view. I’d be screaming at Maeve to move on even more.

I get Maeve wanted to get revenge on Andrea and make sure she got as little of Cyril’s money as possible, but using Danny was a shit move. It soured Danny’s relationship with his wife and made him emotionally dependent on Maeve. There’s a reason I see it as emotional incest.

I get Maeve felt she had to step in and act as Danny’s mother, but it got uncomfortable as an adult. It felt like we watched him cheat on his wife with his sister for decades.

As much as I’d hate Maeve’s side of the story, there is one question she’d answer for me. Was she banging her boss, or not?

The More I Think About This Story, The Less I Like It

When I do my Best of the Month articles, I sometimes find myself regretting making a book an honorable mention. The more I think about this book and talk about it, the more I regret calling it the Best of May.

The reason I considered it a Best read is that I kept thinking about it weeks after reading it. But now that I’m sitting down and writing about it, I feel uncomfortable thinking about it. The more I think, the more gross I feel.

The book wasn’t for me, but most of the Book Club loved it. I’d still recommend it to people because of how strange it is. It felt like I was the only one who noticed the emotional incest, but we still had a good conversation surrounding it.

No matter how you feel about The Dutch House, it’s worth reading once. It’s one of those books you need to experience because you’ll be thinking about it later.

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