November Online Book Club: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

At its core, this book is about a brother and sister who cannot overcome their past wounds.

I totally recommend you choose the audiobook version of The Dutch House. Tom Hanks brought to life the main characters Danny Conroy and his sister Maeve in a way that reminded me of his performance in the movie Big. Hanks is great at capturing the coming of age angst that happened because their mother abandoned the family and their grand house oddly filled with the former residents’ belongings. Spanning five decades, there’s a fairly large cast of characters and quite a bit of time-hopping between chapters. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book version as much, what with all the flipping back and forth to keep track of times and places.

This is a great book club choice because there are so many issues to discuss related to the story. Rarely does our in-real-life book club agree, but this time we all raved about the book because of Tom Hank’s reading! The best book club books have flawed characters who make controversial decisions. When we tried putting ourselves in the shoes of the people within the story, they didn’t fit. I disliked many of the characters for various reasons, but there was plenty to think about. We had a great conversation about mothers, fathers, the role of the house, family, wealth, and marriage. Usually whoever leads the discussion for the month brings a list of questions. But this time we were all so fired up, I don’t think we made it past the first question or two.

Ann Patchett is the author of several non-fiction books, two children’s books, and nine novels including Bel Canto, one of the early books our club read back in 2003 that was made into a movie in 2018.

I hope you try this one and let me know what you think!