The Dutch Wife

by Eric McCormack

Book Overview

Rachel, the mother of the aging professor Thomas Vanderlinden, shared her life with two men. Both went by the name of Rowland Vanderlinden. The first husband went abroad and never returned. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143013424
• ISBN13: 9780143013426
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Penguin Books Canada
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Absorbing storytelling

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.

An unputdownable book!

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.

An incredible cast of characters

This is without a doubt my favorite book in a long long time! I picked up this book at the airport before a flight. As soon as I started reading I knew this would be an incredible journey. I loved everything about this book. The characters are amazing, the story is absolutely fabulous, there is enough new ideas in this book to write a dozen novels. It would make a wonderful movie. I highly recommend this book if you want to be completely transported , this book will take you to a new world where reality is stranger than anything you could imagine.