Wikipedia
Dutch Uncle may refer to:
- Dutch uncle, a term for a person who issues frank, harsh, and severe comments and criticism
- Dutch Uncle (novel), a novel by Marilyn Durham
- Dutch Uncle (play), a play by Simon Gray
- Dutch Uncles, a British indie pop band
Dutch Uncle is a Western novel written by American author Marilyn Durham and published in 1973. The novel followed up Durham's great success with her debut novel, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, another Western also published by Harcourt.
The protagonist, Jake Hollander, is an aging gunfighter turned professional poker player who comes into a small New Mexico town to gamble but, through a series of unlikely circumstances, becomes its marshal and takes two Mexican orphans under his wing.
Dutch Uncle, like The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, garnered critical praise for its character studies and clean writing style, but although a bestseller was not as great a success as Durham's preceding book; based on the success of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, the movie rights to the book had been committed before Durham had completed Dutch Uncle, but ultimately the studio declined to make the film.
Durham's next book, Flambard's Confession, an historical novel set in Medieval England, would not come for almost another decade.
Dutch Uncle is a play by Simon Gray set in a "living room in a decaying house in Shepherd's Bush" in 1952. It features Mr Godboy, whose obsession with the police leads him to go to elaborate lengths to get the attention of the charismatic Inspector Hawkins.
Usage examples of "dutch uncle".
But if you wish me to turn her ashore, sir, I will speak to her now - speak to her like a Dutch uncle.
Now they'll come back, look at that bastard talking to them like a Dutch uncle.
I called him in for a Dutch uncle lecture and he made a sulky compromise.
Bellingham seemed to take it as his right, too, and strutted about among them and talked down to them like a Dutch uncle.
First he plays footsie, getting as close again as the Dutch uncle I thought he had been.
I'll talk to her like a Dutch uncle and make her understand the general scheme of things.