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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing storytelling,
By The Peruvian Wunderkind (Mississauga, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Dutch Wife (Hardcover)
The story involves a frustrated writer that lives next door to an otherwise unexceptional retired professor who, while on his deathbed, relates his anything but unexceptional family's life history to the narrator. The crux of the tale involves the professor's mother who married two men named Roland Vanderlinden, one ostensibly replacing her first husband's identity. We come to learn the details of both men's lives, and how/why his mother unquestionably welcomes a complete stranger as the return of her husband.
The professor largely frames the orientation of the text, although the levels of narration constant wind amongst themselves. Keeping in mind that an ailing older man is relating the tale, and has to constantly sort the various levels of narration that he himself is narrating, we question its essential veracity, particularly in light of the fact that he has an audience hungry for his every word. McCormack writes very much in the minimalist mould: monosyllabic words, terse sentences that seem almost child-like in their simplicity. Nevertheless, there is a poetic quality to the prose, as if the words invite a deeper and more revealing reading. Indeed, the text even ascribes various meanings to the book's title. The text's surface is deceptive, its ostensible plainness belying the narrative's complex underbelly. There are many intriguing plot twists here, which, although startling at times, are never gratuitous or over-the-top. They propel the narrator's frequent visits to the professor to know "what happened next." The book is a veritable encyclopaedia, cataloguing various exotic cultures and places that, to the best of my knowledge, do exist, though you are unlikely to ever hear of them again after putting the book down. The book has a lot of interesting things to say, particularly about the act of narration. In many ways, the text is a celebration about good storytelling. In fact, our entire knowledge and understanding of the characters comes from this act, a function that simultaneously effaces and creates. The truth appears to be whatever the storyteller says it is and, as many readers are sure to agree, it is never dull.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Read,
This review is from: The Dutch Wife (Hardcover)
This was a superb read. I came across the book unexpectedly and couldn't put it down. I found myself very surprised that I hadn't heard of it when it was published, and have to think that it must have been poorly marketed by the publisher, because it certainly hits all the buttons. Great job, Mr. McCormack - I look forward to seeking out more of your work.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unputdownable book!,
This review is from: The Dutch Wife (Hardcover)
Told by a Canadian author who's trying to complete his book, this is a story of his ill neighbour, Thomas Vanderlinden, a man who tries to understand his mother's decisions in love and marriages. Our narrator who becomes the confidante of Thomas's family history finds out how Rachel, Thomas's mother, married two men, both called Rowland Vanderlinden. The story involves "husband-swapping, anthropological adventures in Peru and the South Pacific, true love lost to the claws of death, plague-ridden shiploads of exotic animals, a town populated by one-legged Scotsmen, and more".
The Dutch Wife is a brilliantly conceived novel that doesn't fail to provide a realistic and absorbing read.
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