Nashville author Ann Patchett’s 2019 novel “The Dutch House”, the plot of which is based in Elkins Park, is the subject of a new exhibit at Chattanooga’s Institute of Contemporary Art in Tennessee.
The exhibit features 10 paintings by Wyncote native Becky Suss, who was inspired by interiors and objects described in Patchett’s novel, the Chattanooga Times Free Press said.
One of Suss’ 10 paintings:
According to the Times Free Press, she draws on literature for her pieces, which often examine domestic interiors and memory. Patchett bought one of the paintings herself, Suss said.
She received her MFA from University of California, Berkeley and her BA from Williams College. Her work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2020, she was featured by The New Yorker.
More samples of her work:
For more on Becky Suss, you can visit her website.
The novel follows siblings who grew up in an ornate mansion once owned by a wealthy Dutch family in Elkins Park. It was named a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a New York Times bestseller, “A Read with Jenna” Today Show Book Club Pick, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of the Year.
From the book’s description on Amazon.com:
From Ann Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth, comes a powerful, richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
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Images: Amazon.com, beckysuss.net, icachatt.org