The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

This is the best modern novel I have read in several years.  I regretfully read less these days [ 3-4 a month, not 6-7 anymore].  But I still read quality (ask about my Senior Center Classics). 

I have followed Ann Patchett since “Bel Canto” and “Truth & Beauty” days.  I have watched her grow and develop as an author: “State of Wonder” and “Commonwealth”.  It is a pleasure to live long enough to see your authors, as well as your kids, become brilliant and well respected.

I think this is her finest work to date.  She succeeds at many of the challenges of the modern novel: writing as another gender protagonist, I totally believe her brother’s every thought; handling scene changes in time without totally confusing most readers, she does this flawlessly; pacing the novel, so that dramatic tension grows chapter by chapter, and yet the reveals are seamlessly integrated with the novel as a whole, nothing is totally surprising, albeit possibly unexpected.

The last interesting novel to go into depth about a brother sister relationship that I can think of is “To Kill a Mockingbird”, also written by a woman.  With billions of boy-girl families all over the globe, there have got to be thousands of untold, rich family sagas.

The plot lines are middle-of-the-road: never too rich, never too poor, successful through hard work.  Also “Ye good works precede thee.”

The theme isn’t quite Dr. House’s, “everybody lies”, rather more, “No one ever tells the whole truth.”

And this is the device she uses to slowly unfold the whole story.  Yes, dialogue is the standard way to explain things in a novel, but she does it in such a natural way.  In many of the scenes, my imagery was of my sister and I holding their many conversations, side by side in cars.  She captured the often, mostly unspoken, yet intimate relationship between brother and sister – a bond that can sometimes transcend all other relationships.