- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Viking Canada (Sep 1 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670043230
- ISBN-13: 978-0670043231
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Eric McCormack's Dutch Wife is a bewitching and singularly odd little novel, an amazingly coherent mélange of small-town CanLit and world-travelling fantasy that recalls Poe, Monty Python, Melville, '50s B movies, Indiana Jones, and Henry James. It's the story of a Canadian novelist who, while struggling to complete The Kilted Cowpoke (a Western about Scottish ranchers who battle Apaches and feud among themselves in a thick Lowland dialect), makes the acquaintance of his new neighbour--a solitary, geriatric Renaissance historian named Thomas Vanderlinden. Thomas is soon hospitalized for a mortal illness, and our narrator becomes privy to his remarkable family history--a story that 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 compulsively readable novel, seductive enough to wholly escape the boundaries of credibility. McCormack is an inventive, powerful, and darkly funny writer, and the grace with which he strings the fantastic products of his imagination into a coherent story is truly extraordinary. --Jack Illingworth --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The Dutch Wife begins when the narrator moves into half of an old, unsettling, quite possibly haunted mansion. He befriends his neighbour, the aging Professor Thomas Vanderlinden, and is fascinated by Thomas's story of his remarkable mother, Rachel, and the two men with whom she shared her life. Both went by the name of Rowland Vanderlinden. The first went abroad and never returned. The second Rowland, a man whom Rachel accepted unquestioningly as her husband, was a mystery. Who was he? And what happened to the first Rowland Vanderlinden?
Determined to uncover the secrets of both men, Thomas sets off in search of the first Rowland, eventually tracking him down on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The first Rowland tells Thomas of his many adventures — his visit to the great Monastery of Masalketse, his time as librarian for the Maharajah of Bakhstan and his meeting with the Director of the Institute for the Lost — and Thomas soon grows to respect him. He also learns the identity of the other Rowland Vanderlinden, a man with whom his mother lived happily for many years, although he was utterly unlike the man he impersonated.
The Dutch Wife, while fascinating and perverse, is also a portrait of one woman and the impenetrable choices she makes; a study of the relations between parents and children; an exploration of the concept of redemption; a paean to diversity; and a profound meditation on the nature of love. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unputdownable book!,
This review is from: 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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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing storytelling,
By The Peruvian Wunderkind - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: 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,
By GentleReader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: 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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unputdownable book!,
By Cielledee "cielledee" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: 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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