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blchandler9000 's review for:
Netherland
by Joseph O'Neill
The first of my "hospital books", which I saved all summer to read during what ended up being my 9 day marathon at Weiss.
I found this book to be remarkably well written, both in prose, in structure, and in it's use of themes. The characters are very realistic and quite rounded. Their problems and feelings smack of a genuine authenticity, so much so that I wondered how much of the book could be autobiographical.
The narrator's wife leaves him and takes their son from New York to London after the 9/11 attacks. She uses the attacks as the reason, but the true reason is their marriage is falling apart. To cope, the narrator (Hans) joins a cricket league. There he meets the ambitious Chuck who involves Hans with his high-set dreams of making a high-end cricket court/stadium. Hans struggles with his wife's distance and her obvious desire to just let everything between them fall apart. He also struggles to get a driver's license, make and maintain friendships with New York's multiple immigrant populations (Hans himself is Dutch, his wife British), and keep his head above water—especially when imaginative and reckless Chuck is around.
The author was able to weave emotions, memory, philosophy, and the actual story in a seamless fashion; it was a pleasure to read. He described a New York that I think has never been explored by the majority of Americans—the New York City of the immigrant. Hans' cricket playing buddies are all immigrants, hailing from India, Pakistan, Haiti, Jamaica, and other places where cricket stayed even after the colonials left. The reader, with Hans, is introduced to the back-alley, curry-scented diners, and neighborhoods where people try to get a foothold on being American without losing their cultural heritage. Hans faces this dilemma, too, along with the need to be reunited with his distant, estranged wife.
Beautiful, smart, and authentic. A great book.
I found this book to be remarkably well written, both in prose, in structure, and in it's use of themes. The characters are very realistic and quite rounded. Their problems and feelings smack of a genuine authenticity, so much so that I wondered how much of the book could be autobiographical.
The narrator's wife leaves him and takes their son from New York to London after the 9/11 attacks. She uses the attacks as the reason, but the true reason is their marriage is falling apart. To cope, the narrator (Hans) joins a cricket league. There he meets the ambitious Chuck who involves Hans with his high-set dreams of making a high-end cricket court/stadium. Hans struggles with his wife's distance and her obvious desire to just let everything between them fall apart. He also struggles to get a driver's license, make and maintain friendships with New York's multiple immigrant populations (Hans himself is Dutch, his wife British), and keep his head above water—especially when imaginative and reckless Chuck is around.
The author was able to weave emotions, memory, philosophy, and the actual story in a seamless fashion; it was a pleasure to read. He described a New York that I think has never been explored by the majority of Americans—the New York City of the immigrant. Hans' cricket playing buddies are all immigrants, hailing from India, Pakistan, Haiti, Jamaica, and other places where cricket stayed even after the colonials left. The reader, with Hans, is introduced to the back-alley, curry-scented diners, and neighborhoods where people try to get a foothold on being American without losing their cultural heritage. Hans faces this dilemma, too, along with the need to be reunited with his distant, estranged wife.
Beautiful, smart, and authentic. A great book.