Take one dose of dysfunctional family drama and mix it with one dose of fairy tale, complete with evil step mother, two step sisters and a glass house. Add a generous sprinkle of Tom Hanks and voila – an audio bestseller is born.
The cover of The Dutch House features a portrait of Maeve, the older sister of the protagonist Danny. This is suitable, because The Dutch House is essentially a portrait of Maeve.
Danny is still a young boy, when their mother leaves home. Consequently, he is brought up by Maeve and various household staff. At some point Andrea (a.k.a. the evil stepmother) turns up exhibiting a behaviour not too far from that of her alter ego in Cinderella. Eventually, when their father dies prematurely, the siblings are exiled from the house.
The Dutch House is character driven and to me the characters stood out by a mile. I felt these were real people, whom I might run into in the street; real people who make mistakes, take stupid decisions, behave irrationally, repeat their parents’ mistakes, but also people who are loyal and want to do the right thing. I couldn’t help liking most of them or at least feeling a certain degree of empathy.
Danny is a great protagonist, but partly due to Tom Hanks’ amazing narration, it was difficult to see him as an independent character. Normally, I build a picture in my head of the protagonist, but when I think of Danny, I only see Tom Hanks. I am not sure, if this is good or bad, but it does Tom Hanks credit.
Maeve is strong, independent and intelligent. She navigates a series of difficult events and is highly protective of her brother. I loved Maeve, she is my kind of heroine. The close bond between the two siblings forms the core in The Dutch House and like the story itself, it is beautiful, sad, endearing.
Unsurprisingly, the Dutch house plays an important role. The house is the glue, which binds the characters together and it seems that the destiny of each and everyone is forever tied to the house. For Danny and Maeve it symbolises a certain era in their life and they find it difficult to let go and move on.
The novel plays out over decades, providing a good scope for character development. When we first meet Danny, he is a small boy. Throughout the novel we jump back and forth between different timelines until we finally leave Danny around age 50.
The writing is superb. Ann Patchett manages to build up a unique atmosphere. The underlying tone is poignant and sad, but there is also humour and wonderful moments, especially between the two siblings. The novel’s strong sense of real life and real people is juxtaposed with the unearthly fairytale elements connected with the house. On paper this shouldn’t work, but it does, and I think this contrast contributes to the uniqueness of the story.
Normally, I don’t have to think much about my star ratings, but with The Dutch House I was torn between four and five stars. However, since Maeve, Danny and a good part of the supporting characters are still rumbling around in my head several weeks after I finished the book, I guess, I have my answer.
Title: The Dutch House [2019]
Author: Ann Patchett
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Tom Hanks
Genre: Historical Fiction
Sounds good. I love the cover. It sounds like it too the inspiration of Cinderella and ran with it, which is interesting. I think that’s the problem with famous people narrating audiobooks. It’s great in one way, but then you end up seeing the MC as them. Great review.
I kind of wonder what Tom Hanks is doing narrating an audiobook anyway. It’s not like he doesn’t have other projects — namely films — he’ll be invited to do. Recently I listened to Of Mice and Men and couldn’t help by picture Gary Sinese (the audiobook narrator) the entire time.
After audiobooks have become so popular, it seems like the publishers are really stepping up! Famous actors are used, music is added and sometimes special effects. I recently listened to a book, which had its own theme song!
Today I was reading an article about how Ducks, Newburyport was never going to be an audiobook because it’s so long (over 1,000 pages), but because it is a prizewinner, a company approached the publisher about recording it. The final product is about 45 hours long, which typically is cost prohibitive to an audiobook company, but audiobooks are now being checked out at some libraries more than paper books.
45 hours sound excessive, but then again, I recently listened to Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, which was 39 hours long. It was offered for free to all Audible subscribers. I am sure audiobooks is a lucrative business!
The editing alone would take forever. I’ve edited a clip of an author reading for about 20 minutes, and that took hours.
Strangely enough, I never thought of the editing of audiobooks, but of course you are right.
It’s also hard on the reader because they have to be in a tiny room with no air movement (A/C or heat) because you can hear that in the recording.
I love the cover as well and the painting of Maeve actually plays a role in the story. I’ve never experienced that the main character melted together with the audiobook narrator, the way it happened with The Dutch House. Presumably, there has to be some similarities (real or imagined) between the two to make it happen. I had no problems with Stephen Fry narrating Harry Potter or Anne Hathaway narrating The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Thanks! 😀
Good point. I guess the part was suited to Mr Hanks.
It really was!
Great review! I’ve been wanting to read this and was thinking about the audiobook and I’m absolutely sold by Tom Hanks narrating.
Thanks! You should definitely try the audiobook, unless you have problems with keeping your focus on the story when listening. I know some people feel like that.
I’ve slowly been getting into audiobooks and this one sounds like one I could get into 🙂
It is worth trying, especially if you like Tom Hanks!
High praise. I’ve seen this book mentioned a lot. It’s very tempting…
It is tempting, isn’t it. I gave in after seeing several raving reviews and I don’t regret it for a moment! 🙂
I haven’t read any of Patchett’s work yet but I’ve heard great things (including about this one), so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it so much!
This was my first Patchett, but I am certainly open for trying more or her works!
Fantastic review! I’m so glad I got this on audio as I’ve only read good thing about Tom Hanks narration.
Thanks! 😀 Tom Hanks narration almost made it worth a listen in itself, but the story was great as well!
Ok, I’m sold! I saw so many mixed reviews of this when it came out that I couldn’t decide whether to give it a chance or not, but if the characterisation is good then that’s half the battle. I’m intrigued at the idea of Tom Hanks narrating but I do often struggle with proper fiction on audio, so I’ll probably stick to the written word…
Yay! Now, I really hope you like it. You might have to be a bit patient with it, at least I did in the beginning. But slowly it crept up on me and by the end I was completely sold. I could imagine, it’s a somewhat different experience to read instead of listen. Perhaps it’s better, at least you won’t have the picture of Tom Hanks in your head all the time (not that I minded, really 😉 ).
What a wonderful review! I just need to meet the characters now!
Thanks! And you should, they are certainly worth spending some time with 🙂
I love this review, stargazer, and I’m so happy to hear this audio was memorable for you too. I felt the same about the characters. I still think of them!
Thanks so much, Jennifer. They were great characters, weren’t they. Even the mother and step mother – they did a lot of wrong, but I still felt sorry for them.
Excellent review! I love the sound of the writing and characters in this one. The realer they are, the better the story! 😀 I also have to say that I often find it a bit hard to get used to, at least at first, to famous actors doing voices, like Tom Hanks here. I personally prefer when the voice actor can change his voice for the character and sell the character just as well, if not better hahah
Thanks! The characters really were great, but if they hadn’t been, the book would fall flat, because there isn’t much of a plot going on. I too like narrators, who do the different voices for different characters, that is why I love Stephen Fry and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith so much.
What did you think of the ending? A friend read this and was frustrated by the narrator’s reaction to events at the end.
There are a few things happening towards the end, but I think forgiveness is probably one of the big themes. I did find the reactions of the narrator realistic and in line with his character. It doesn’t matter to me, if I agree with the narrator or whether I would have reacted the same way or not. To me the ending was very suitable for the story. Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂