We all know it takes great skill when an author creates realistic characters but how about when an author makes an inanimate object just as lifelike? In the case of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Manderley is just as important as any of the protagonists. I admire writers who can do this and as an Ann Patchett fan, I was sure that she would definitely pull it off in her latest novel, The Dutch House.
The book’s narrator Danny has grown up with his dad,mother and sister in The Dutch House, a mansion that was previously owned by a Dutch couple. One day their mother disappears and their father remarries and the stepmother sets her own rules. One of them banishing Danny, thus being exiled from his past.
In typical Ann Patchett style us readers then see what has happened to Danny and the rest of the family. All non chronologically. There are deaths, births, remarriages and a couple of plot twists. All involve the spectre of The Dutch House looming over them.
With some exceptions I try not to read the same authors in close proximity because themes then start to blend. A couple of weeks ago I read Patchett’s Commonwealth and it spoiled my enjoyment of The Dutch House. I saw way too many similarities. One action changing the course of the main protagonist, descriptions of hospitals, unstable marriages. In a way The Dutch House mirrors Commonwealth, with not too many differences. Sure the writing is fantastic as always but I felt underwhelmed. Definitely me, not the book.
Like this? try this : Daphne du Maurier : Rebecca
The Bobsphere 