The Dutch House by Ann Pachette

According to sources on the internet, an average person lives in 11 different homes in one lifetime. This data must be of significant importance for those trying to invest in the moving or rental industry, I thought. I started counting and realized that I have lived in 10 houses since my childhood. How many homes have you lived in? 

When Elvis Presley sang – Home is where the heart is, he made home in a million hearts. What part of that song do you most resonate with? In my case I echo with the part where it goes :
Maybe I’m a rolling stone
Who won’t amount to much
But everything that I hold dear
Is close enough to touch

Though I have loved every home that I lived in, I don’t feel the need to carry my home with me wherever I go. I am a rolling stone and whatever I hold dear, I keep close enough. Would it be any different if I lived in a place like “The Dutch House”? I wonder! 

The cover of the book drew me to the book. This book was not on my TBR list and so I wouldn’t have picked it up if not for the daunting eyes of the girl on the book cover. The name of the novel and the picture of this girl made me grab the book by the cover during one of my recent library visits. 

Book Blurb:

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both save their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may read it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve will stay with you for a very long time.

It is an incredible story and you feel completely invested in the characters. The journey of the siblings Maeve and Danny, as their life goes through the highs and lows of getting into the Dutch house, having to leave it, and yet coming back to sitting outside the house in a car and reminiscing their life there. With so many unanswered questions in their lives, it is not uncommon to feel unsettled and clogged. Amidst all this, The Dutch House, the most beautiful house anyone has ever seen, stands tall and elegant. Despite what happens to the people living inside the house, the house itself is always beautiful.  

This book talks beautifully about how the narrative one creates about one’s past, about money, about luxury, and about purpose, affects one’s life. Maeve and Danny’s mother could not bring herself to staying in the opulent house, whereas their stepmother Andrea marries their father because of the house. The narrative each woman had about money, luxury, and life makes them such different individuals. 

The bonding of siblings and the plain fact that they look out for each other ties the whole story in an emotional thread. 

Is it okay for a mother to abandon her kids and leave the house and the family to help some unknown poor people in India? Is it okay for her to assume that her children will be taken care of while she devotes her time to take care of others who need care? And if it is not okay, then Why is it not okay for a woman to take that step in order to live her purpose if it is okay for a man to do so? This question daunts us right from the beginning of the story. 

Maeve never felt like she could go back and live in the Dutch house, but, Danny probably did not mind going back. 

This book will hook you on from the very first page.

How do you feel about the houses that you have lived in? Do you still feel attached to it or do you feel home is where the heart is?  

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