The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

★★★☆☆|☆☆
“We had made a fetish out of our misfortune, fallen in love with it.”
Timestamps and links below the fold ↓
0:00 Intro
0:07 Summary
1:23 Review
2:10 Determinism
4:09 Get a will
5:05 Goodbye
Find on Chareads - chareads.com/books/the-dutch-...
See on Goodreads - cha.rs/3GSWCZ3DS/gr
Buy on Book Depository - cha.rs/3GSWCZ3DS/bd
Buy on Amazon - cha.rs/3GSWCZ3DS/amzn
🏡 chareads.com/
📚 / charlotte-dann
🌟 / charlotte_dann

[@kimberlyrobinson3992]

I don’t think *anything* in the book supports Maeve being gay. I think that’s the projected wish of some people who just want to have gay characters inserted into every work of fiction in every medium. In the book, Maeve tells Danny that she loves Jacques Tati, the star and director of “Mon Oncle”. He’s a man. Plus, the author herself talks about the instructions she gave to the painter she commissioned to do the painting that is the cover art. She told him that ten year-old Maeve was in love with the painter who did her portrait. This clip of the author is readily available here on KZbin. Try doing your research. Maeve puts every aspect of her life on hold, starting when she’s a child, because she had the welfare of her little brother laid entirely at her doorstep. From the start, she acted like a thirty year old woman because she felt she had no choice. Their father was too self-absorbed to raise Danny and who knows what would have happened to him if Maeve hadn’t shouldered the responsibility. Maeve had enough talent to be a math professor or a big shot at some major company in New York City. She didn’t because she wanted to be available to care for her brother. I don’t think she regrets her choice but it has made her closed off emotionally and cynical. That’s why she doesn’t really have a love life, not because she’s gay.

[@GuiltyFeat]

I read this last month and thought it was perfectly lovely. I cried at all the right moments and gulped the rest of it down. I don't think it will stay with me the way Bel Canto has, but it was a fine bit of work.

[@debrakanoff8074]

Loved this video review. Excellent thought-provoking comments. This book was personal to me because I read it shortly after my husband and I sold our house where, for 30 years, we raised our two children. We moved only a couple of miles away, and I find myself driving past "our" house every time it's on the way to my destination. Finally, in addition to having a will, at least in California, it is also very important to have a trust in order to enable your beneficiaries to avoid the lengthy, costly probate process.

[@thusharaelizabethtom8575]

I really enjoy your reviews because they are brief and to the point 😁.

[@saltysandia]

Loved it❣

[@manya2954]

Exactly same opinion as you! Thought it was interesting and had the occassionally lovely line, but never really got too emotionally invested in the outcomes. I think re: determinism, it doesn't have to be either/or, clearly our parents and past experiences significantly influence us - some of us are able to chart paths outside of those experiences and some of us don't. Danny's just one example of people that don't, and that's okay, I think, and isn't a statement about how everyone lives and needs to live.

[@SpringboardThought]

Well, I initially consumed it as an audiobook, as I suspect many readers did because I noticed Tom Hanks narrated it. And yet, perhaps just everything is more profound when Tom speaks? I don’t know. I did really like what it had to say about family dynamics, especially forgiveness and restorative justice. I’m in a family where we are ostensibly close, but don’t really know that much about each other, so I think it just twanged an inner heart string, basically.

[@DrCory48]

Cool video

[@Kpup]

"Maeve is the best character ever" - agree. I also agree that she was secretly gay. I really felt like Danny's daughter was kind of an extension of Maeve? I really felt like the ending was telling us that May was going to live on in her memory.

[@kristinclark8843]

YES to everything about wills! I work at an estate planning law firm and they are SO essential!