I attended a talk that Ann Patchett gave before a book signing of The Dutch House recently. She was a marvelously entertaining raconteur. She was also a throw-back to another age. Her adventures in writing and publishing are far outside the norm for this time period, beginning with short story published in “The Paris Review” while she was in college over thirty years ago. An agent read it and signed her. When she finished her first novel, she drove hours to deliver the manuscript (this was in the age before the internet and email). Four days later the book was picked up by a major publisher, and she never looked back.
I’ve read everything she has published, and while I am not crazy about some of her work, Bel Canto and State of Wonder are among the best novels I’ve ever read (and I’ve read well over a thousand).
In 2011 she co-founded Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. In that capacity she was inundated with all the new releases from the Big Five publishing houses, and became an interviewer of other authors who stopped by her store to do book signings and promotions. As a result, she has developed many friendships with other outstanding authors — Michael Chabon, Kate DiCamillo, Barbara Kingsolver, Zadie Smith, Donna Tartt, Patrick Ryan, J.K. Rowling, Jane Hamilton, and others. So, when she gets stuck and asks for some guidance from fellow writers, she has the best in the business to point her in the right direction. That is truly rarified air, particularly in a field that is so solitary by nature. I’m not suggesting that the rest of us toiling in the trenches have her talent, nor that given her contacts we could turn out work as transcendent. I’m merely pointing out how unique her situation is.
When she set out to write The Dutch House, she couldn’t get past 30 pages. She tried changing the point-of-view and other tricks of the trade, but no matter what she did she didn’t seem to be able to get past that wall. Then she interviewed Barbara Kingsolver. At lunch afterwards Kingsolver could tell that something was bothering her. Patchett recounted the trouble she was having starting her new novel. Kingsolver listened to the bare bones synopsis, then said something to the effect that, I see where you’re going wrong. Your story is probably coming off the rails at about page 29 or 30, because that’s where you should turn left instead of right. Which solved that problem. When Patchett finished her first draft, she gave it to (if I remember correctly) Donna Tartt, who said (and I’m paraphrasing): The first third is magical, the second third is brilliant, but the last third falls off a cliff. Kate DiCamillo looked it over, saw what the problem was, and gave her a paragraph about how she would finish the book. And that was how The Dutch House came together. Sometimes the best editors are fellow writers.
The novel has garnered mostly glowing reviews, though it isn’t for the usual reader of plot-driven genre fiction. After reading along with the audible version. Tom Hanks lends his reassuring voice to the narration. Here is my take on it:
The Dutch House continues exploring the same themes as her previous novel, Commonwealth. In Commonwealth she writes “…Accepting the circumstances didn’t turn out to be the same as forgiveness.” Forgiveness, or the lack thereof, seems to haunt Patchett’s novels. What rings true in The Dutch House, is how time takes care of all transgressions. We watch Maeve and Danny grow from children angry and dismayed by their mistreatment, to middle-aged adults who find that with enough time old grudges lose their power. The middle-aged survivors are simply no longer the same people they were as teenagers and young adults. Only the house remains unchanged. For me, The Dutch House lacked the mystery of State of Wonder, and the complex motivations and interactions that made Bel Canto so satisfying. But it is still a fine character study.
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