The Dutch House in Reading with Style

Jun 09, 2021 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library, women, 5-star-reads, twenty-first-century

Does a house make a home? I think when you're a child, it most certainly represents "home" and that is what the Dutch House was to Maeve and Danny Conroy. It was a beautiful house - more than a house, it was a mansion outside of Philadelphia, a very special place indeed. And then, like getting a rug pulled from beneath their feet, it was taken away from them. It was unimaginable to them how suddenly everything changed.

My family did not live in a mansion by any stretch of the imagination. It was ...more

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Mar 25, 2020 Juniper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: effing-awesome, historical-fiction, audiobook, 2020-books, 2021-books

this review is for the audiobook edition, narrated by tom hanks.

my goodness, this is so damn great! like, seriously excellent. patchett's story and writing are pitch-perfect, and her characters are vivid. the relationship between siblings maeve and danny is the most endearing and lovely brother-sister bond i can ever recall reading - it's layered and nuanced.

hanks' embodiment of danny is outstanding. his tones, expression of emotions and moods, and comedic timing are fantastic. (i mean, this isn ...more

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Dec 14, 2020 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 2020-read, rws-2020-winter, pas-trim-2021

This book gets the extra star for the excellent narration of the audiobook by Tom Hanks. This first-person narrative lends itself perfectly to audio format and Hanks gives a convincing and compelling performance as the narrator.

The structure of the book is interesting, jumping about in time and memories as a story of a family unfolds with the house as the centerpiece to the lives of the family members. I loved the characters here--they had vitality and complexity. None of them was perfect, all o ...more

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Jul 23, 2019 Joy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star, literary-fiction, 2019

Another wonderful novel by Ann Patchett with realistically complex characters and, of course, fantastic writing that immediately draws you in to the story. Maeve and Danny are close-knit siblings who dissect their memories to try to understand their childhoods and navigate the aftermath of their personal traumas. Patchett interjects events from the past and reveals how some consequences play out in the future, which adds satisfying depth for the reader. This will be an excellent selection for bo ...more

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Aug 31, 2020 Bucket rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary, life-and-death, parents-affecting-children, reviewed

My experience with reading Ann Patchett has been hit and miss, but this one is a hit -- and she's now officially more hits than misses for me. :)

I love the way that the house is such a critical character - it's not subtle but it's interesting and very well done. Maeve's and Daniel's stories are interesting to follow and their characters developed very believably throughout.

Most of the minor characters were well done too, with Andrea treated especially deftly. I was impressed with the way Patche ...more

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