The Dutch House: A Reading Guide. The household help, Sandy (housekeeper) and Jocelyn (cook), help to raise them as well. It was my first novel by her, and I was impressed by her writing. Cyril is also more interested in nurturing Danny than Maeve, since Danny is male and will take over his real estate business someday. As much as I enjoy flashier mystery or fantasy or adventurous stories, there is a special place in my heart I reserve for subtle stories that are elegantly told. “The Dutch House” is a sibling story — that of Maeve and Danny Conroy, a brother and sister growing up comfortable in Elkins Park, Pa., in a house … DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 TIME: 9:30am – 11:30am* LOCATION: Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA** Reading & Conversation with Author Ann Patchett Join us and meet author Ann Patchett as she presents her new novel, The Dutch House! Did you read this or would you consider reading it? He finishes medical school despite being uninterested in working as a doctor, hoping to please Maeve. Flipping through its pages, I feel myself drawn into the understated and engrossing story of Danny and Maeve Conroy. Perhaps returning to their Children seemed like the opposite of love to Elna. I loved the audiobook. The Dutch House (Harper), Ann Patchett’s masterful eighth novel, is a fierce, intimate, and unstoppably readable saga of family life. They grow up in a grand house, known as the Dutch House. The Dutch House. One day, Cyril brings home Andrea, a young, pretty woman with two young girls, Norma and Bright. The fictional Dutch House of the title is located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, where the author spent weekends as … Elkins Park is notable for its varied architectural styles (among them: Modern, American colonial and Dutch colonial, Queen Anne, English Cottage and Tudor) its wealth of homes designed by renowned 19th and 20th century architects such as Horace Trumbauer, Louis Kahn and Robert A.M. Stern and its diversity of religious institutions. It begins in the late 1940s, when Cyril Conroy surprises his wife, Elna, with a glass mansion in the posh Philadelphia neighborhood of Elkins Park. In the novel, it was built by the VanHoebeek family from the Netherlands, but it was purchased by the narrator Danny Conroy’s father in 1946 as a surprise to the narrator’s mother. I did not care that much for the book. She hates it. They return to the street outside the Dutch House every time Danny is back in town for a visit. In this story, only the house doesn't change. It’s neither too sparse or too flowery, instead it’s crisp, clear and confident in an unassuming way. The following is excerpted from The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. The Dutch House is a fictional mansion located in a suburb of Philadelphia called Elkins Park. I’ll put this one my list and see if I can get to it. The ersatz Hansel and Gretel are Danny and Maeve Conroy, the observant (albeit self-centered) narrator and his brilliant older sister. A poor Brooklyn kid, Cyril amassed a tidy fortune in suburban Philadelphia investing in real estate, starting in 1946 with the Dutch House, an architectural marvel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Danny marries his girlfriend Celeste, and they have two children, May and Kevin. In Part II, Danny is in college now. Of course, this is an understated and somewhat interior novel, so if that’s not something that interests you, then maybe try something else. The guilt and shame for some women who abandon their Children overpower their love. The Dutch House is a marvelously moving novel about a house, its inhabitants, their lives and the impact of the house on everything. When Danny is 3 and Maeve is 10, she falls ill and abandons the family to work with the poor in India, later relocating to New York City. The reason I set the book in Elkins Park is because of my friend Erica Schultz (née Buchsbaum). They (reluctantly) go and discover that Andrea now has a degenerative mental condition and doesn't recognize them. [5], Publishers Weekly gave the novel a rave review, writing, "Patchett's splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind. Cyril and Andrea marry. Maeve has an adversarial relationship with Andrea. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. The Dutch House is a mansion located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Instead, Maeve pushes Danny to pursue an expensive education (medical school), in order to drain the trust and prevent money from reverting to Andrea. I was out of town for a while and have been otherwise wrapped up in some other stuff, so this review took a little longer to get up than I’d intended, but here it is! One day, their father brings home a woman, Andrea Smith, who … What do you think? Danny and Maeve occasionally park outside the Dutch House and spy on Andrea voyeuristically. Even if you feel like I did, I think you’ll probably still find something of value in this story anyway. The important thing is that the Dutch House in the book conjures up that feeling. I used to babysit the president’s daughter and spent a lot of time in that house. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 : PHILADELPHIA/ELKINS PARK, PA OPEN BOOK BOOKSTORE 10:00 AM, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, 8339 Old York Road. In The Dutch House, Maeve and Danny are siblings who grow up in a grand house in Elkins Park. [2], The novel was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[3]. (The Detailed Plot Summary is also available, below). Norma has recently moved back to the Dutch House to take care of Andrea, and Bright is estranged from Andrea. When May becomes rich and famous actress, she buys the house. In 1945, Brooklyn-born real-estate entrepreneur Cyril Conroy purchases the Dutch House in Elkins Park, outside Philadelphia, and presents it, complete with Delft mantels, life-size portraits of the original owners, a ballroom, and staff, to his wife. The titular house is a stunning, glass-fronted mansion in Elkins Park, bought by the family patriarch as a gift to his wife after World War II. Intended as a gift for his wife as well as a symbol of their rising fortunes, the Dutch House is … Elna moves in with Maeve. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. On the Market: Turn-of-the-Century Manor in Elkins Park Save for its kitchen and bathrooms, this elegant house has been only minimally updated since it was completed in 1903. … Follow along on Goodreads, or keep in touch via the newsletter. The Dutch House is a novel by Ann Patchett, published in 2019.It tells the story of two siblings, Danny and Maeve Conroy, and how their abandonment as children leaves them reliant on each other.. The siblings are raised together in the Dutch House by their father and their stepmother Andrea. Maeve and Danny Conroy grow up in the storied Dutch House, a 1922 mansion in the Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park that was commissioned by the VanHoebeek family, who made a fortune in cigarettes and filled their American home with European treasures, ornate mirrors, wood paneling, fanciful windows, and blue Delft mantels "said to have been pried out of a castle in Utrecht … Spring was something of a misnomer that year since there was a foot of snow on the ground, an April Fool's Day joke to cap a bitter winter. Their mother Elna left when they were younger. That said, there were parts of the Dutch House didn’t entirely resonate with me. The lives of siblings Danny and Maeve Conroy are overshadowed by their childhood home, 'The Dutch House', an elegant glass mansion located in Elkins Park - … will likely have differing views on this, and it’s no reason not to read the book. Their father strikes it rich and buys a lavish mansion known as The Dutch House as a surprise for their mother, and that event reverberates with repercussions for everyone in the family and kicks off a five-decade long story. For the Detailed Plot Summary, click here or scroll all the way down. Maeve and Danny's mother abandoned their family when they were young, so they are raised by their father and the household help instead. Set in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (a Philly suburb I called home for nearly a year), the fictional Dutch House was built by the VanHoebeek family in 1922 and strategically situated on a spectacular property. Elstowe Manor, the crown jewel of the estate, was built in 1898 by William L. Elkins, the prominent Philadelphia businessman who, along with Peter A.B. Cyril Conroy, a self-made real estate mogul, bought the mansion in 1946 to surprise his wife Elna. If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ($1, $2, or $4) or joining the Patreon! Fluffy didn't tell Maeve in fear of upsetting her. I was confused after finishing this book. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, A family drama about two siblings making sense of their childhood. Instead, he goes to medical school. You will close the book half believing you could drive to Elkins Park and see it. "[10], "Tom Hanks reads audio for Ann Patchett's new novel", "Moser, Whitehead, McDaniel, Grandin, Boyer, Brown Win 2020 Pulitzers", "Fiction Book Review: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett", "Ann Patchett Spins a Modern Fairy Tale in Her Luminous New Novel", "Review: Ann Patchett's 'Dutch House' is modern fairy tale", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Dutch_House_(novel)&oldid=1005318254, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 February 2021, at 02:29.