Review of THE DUTCH ORPHAN by Ellen Keith (New Release)

 2.5 Stars

This novel is set primarily in Amsterdam during World War II.  Two sisters find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.  Johanna is a singer who has many Jewish acquaintances among her circle of musicians and performers.  She sets out to raise money to help protect the Jews whose lives and livelihoods are more and more constrained.  Her sister Liesbeth is married to Maurits, a Nazi sympathizer, and though she doesn’t always agree with his beliefs and behaviour, she doesn’t challenge him because “it wasn’t her role.”  The danger increases when a Jewish orphan requires protection.  Not trusting Liesbeth, Johanna keeps secrets from her sister, and gradually their once-close bond starts to unravel.  Will they be able to reconnect after the war ends?

I found it very difficult to connect with either sister.  Liesbeth is weak and shallow; though she has misgivings about the NSB, the Dutch Fascist Party, she becomes involved with a member of the movement.  She describes herself as having been selfish as a child, but her actions suggest that she still is.  She feels lonely so she betrays someone she loves?  She is also stupid, not seeing all the so-obvious clues about the truth behind a man’s job, house, and possessions.  Johanna also lacks intelligence.  She is on the lookout for an informer but even when she witnesses suspicious behaviour, she dismisses it as a coincidence.  Then, when she learns the identity of a bounty hunter, she decides to confront him directly.  When that doesn’t end well, she replays the events “examining every detail, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong”?! 

There is a lack of tension at the beginning.  Then though there is more later, the reader knows that everything will work out in the end.  When one of the sisters finds herself in a dangerous position, it’s amazing how she manages to extricate herself.  She indicates she “’had a lot of luck’” and that’s an understatement.  A guard takes an interest in her for some vague reason, and a German officer finds her, “an unwashed stranger with a Dutch accent,” but doesn’t question her and, instead, offers her food and accommodation?    

There are elements that I found strange and/or annoying.  The title is an issue because the orphan does not appear until one-third through the book, and the story is more about the sisters than the child.  Every time Willem appears, it seems we are told that he pushes up his glasses “with his middle finger”!  The Germans are “hooked” on Pervitin, a methamphetamine, but it’s “perfectly safe”?  At one point Johanna states she is in charge of organizing the guest list for secret house concerts, but later it is mentioned that the host “composed the guest list” and “the concert hosts vetted the lists before Jakob and I saw them”?  Someone can see a film of a family outing to the beach and recognize the people as Jewish?  An anti-Semite would be knowledgeable about a Jewish High Holy Day and say, “’By Rosh Hashanah, the whole city will be Judenrein’”?  A woman knows nothing about sewing but “By the third shirt, I’d started to get the knack of it.  My hands coaxed the fabric through the machine with ease”? 

Some sections are vague.  Prisoners were allowed to get a change of clothes to bring with them and to stay in contact with their families?  The Germans confiscate bicycles and Johanna’s is taken by an Order Policeman by a canal one evening but she later has it when going to find Dirk? 

Characters are introduced and then disappear.  Nelly first appears three-quarters through the book and is mentioned ten times and then never again.  The fate of some fairly important characters is just mentioned in passing.  Is Marijke de Graaf the same woman as appears in the author’s previous novel The Dutch Wife? 

Having enjoyed The Dutch Wife, I hoped to like this novel as well.  Unfortunately, it is a disappointment.  The characters are not engaging and there are just too many holes and inconsistencies.  I read a digital galley so perhaps some of these problems have been addressed in the final copy.

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.