BOOK OF THE WEEK
THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett Jonathan Cape, £18.99 (ebook £9.22) ★★★★★
THIS may just be the story of a family who live in a very particular house, but Ann Patchett weaves such a heartrending portrayal of a building, and what it can do to its inhabitants, that it feels much more.
The Dutch House spans the lives of siblings Danny and Maeve as they grow up in a house full of windows, so grand and incongruent with their small Pennsylvanian town, that it dominates their futures, forever tugging them back to the relationships that developed and foundered there.
Narrated by Danny, it tracks back and forth through time, teasing at events as he analyses himself and his brilliant, sister. It captures the feeling of loss perfectly, brutally – whether of a parent or a matchless window seat, but it does so without drowning in sentimentality. Patchett’s prose dazzles with detail and nuance.
watercolours Blake created for a 2017 show, and the additional 20 he produced once inspired by his theme of moonlit travels. Will Self provides the accompanying words for the book.
For fans of Blake, the frenzied, melancholic illustrations of nighttime journeys in a fantastical yet familiar landscape, will certainly appeal. There’s much detail to look at and, as ever, the artist’s energy sizzles on the page.
Self’s accompanying narrative of a journey to the moon echoes neatly.
However, the pairing comes undone as Self’s inclination for high-flown language jars with Blake’s simplicity of expression.
NON-FICTION AYOADE ON TOP by Richard Ayoade Faber & Faber, £12.99 (ebook £7.99) ★★★★★ RICHARD AYOADE is a man of many talents – director, screenwriter, TV presenter, comedian, actor panel show denizen, etc. Here he dons his author hat to bring us a brief faux appreciation of a forgotten – and doubtless highly forgettable – Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle, View From The Top (2003).
He embarks on a highly ironic paean to the film’s crass directorial style, its naff soundtrack, its clunky multiplex sensibility.
The whole thing is a one-note, brittle highbrow takedown of an easy lowbrow target.