In a New York City made phantasmagorical by the events of 9/11, Hans--a banker originally from the Netherlands--finds himself marooned among the strange occupants of the Chelsea Hotel after his English wife and son return to London. Alone and untethered, feeling lost in the country he had come to regard as home, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure who is part idealist and part operator, introduces Hans to an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality. Hans is alternately seduced and instructed by Chuck's particular brand of naivete and chutzpah--by his ability to a hold fast to a sense of American and human possibility in which Hans has come to lose faith. Netherland gives us both a flawlessly drawn picture of a little-known New York and a story of much larger, and brilliantly achieved ambition: the grand strangeness and fading promise of 21st century America from an outsider's vantage point, and the complicated relationship between the American dream and the particular dreamers. Most immediately, though, it is the story of one man--of a marriage foundering and recuperating in its mystery and ordinariness, of the shallows and depths of male friendship, of mourning and memory. Joseph O'Neill's prose, in its conscientiousness and beauty, involves us utterly in the struggle for meaning that governs any single life.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Recollections and reveries of the narrator's four worlds:
"Netherland" is a very good read. Hans van den Broek, Joseph O'Neill's protagonist and narrator is of four worlds: childhood in The Hague; pre-9/11 London; 9/11-era New York City; and post-9/11 London. O'Neill's tale weaves together van den Broek's recollections interrupted by reveries of these four time periods. Hans is reflective, ruminative, self-analyzing, self-critical. The writing bears that level of introspection. Despite this complexity, you never lose the plot. Nor does the writing ever turn... more info
As patchy as a cricket pitch...:
This is certainly a good book. The writing is, as James Wood said in his review of it, "exquisite". It has been compared to The Great Gatsby, too, but I only fitfully saw a resemblance there. But I hate to say that it has been over-praised, even though I always want to validate the opinions of James Wood, who is a great critic. The wording is occasionally similar to that of W.G Sebald, as well as Fitzgerald, but it never quite reaches the sublime heights of those two writers. It left me indifferent by... more info
As boring as Cricket:
I should have put the book down when I read the word cricket. This book will put you to sleep like an 8hour cricket match. There was a lot of uninteresting details that strecthed the book out. The most exciting character in the book was Chuck and if the book was in his perspective it would have been far more interesting. The main character Hans is an oil analyst and seems to have the personality of a tree branch. We go thru the ups and downs of his volatile marriage and magically they make up which I find... more info
Don't think I can finish it.:
I probably shouldn't write a review of a book I haven't finished, but I agree with everyone else here who has given a negative review. I have a graduate degree in English, so I think I have a little bit of credibility when I say that this is not a good book.
The writing may occasionally be interesting, but most of the time it's not, especially when it's about cricket. The narrator is not likable (unless you are the narrator, he seems to think pretty highly of himself). I keep thinking something might... more info
