2023/084: The Dutch House — Ann Patchett

2023/084: The Dutch House — Ann Patchett

There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself. [p. 121]

Maeve and Danny's mother left when Maeve was ten and Danny was three: Maeve remembers her, Danny doesn't. After some years their father marries Andrea, who brings with her two daughters (one of whom is given Maeve's lovely room while Maeve's away at college: on returning, Maeve is banished to a garret. Then the father dies, and Andrea swiftly evicts Maeve and Danny from the Dutch House, their childhood home, which becomes a symbol of everything they've lost.( Read more... )