Netherland: A Novel by Joseph O'Neill
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Book Reviews of Netherland: A Novel
Book Review: Fascinating and Informative
Summary: 5 Stars
Joseph O'Neill is that rare writer who can fill an always fascinating novel with an astonishing amount of research that never gets in the way of his fast-paced story.
Book Review: Funny and sad, the best view of post 9/11 NYC I know of
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a well written and knowing book. Its sad but has true wit as well.Book Review: "How do you re-imagine your life?"
Summary: 4 Stars
When I first read about "Netherland" it was presented as a 9/11 novel. This is not entirely the case. In fact, 9/11 the day barely figures into the plotline at all - it is the tumultuous after-effects of 9/11 that are explored in Joseph O'Neill's infinitely clever, if flawed, novel. At the outset we meet Hans van den Broek in present-day London, where he has recently relocated in order to rejoin his wife and son after a trial separation. He gets some sad news regarding Chuck Ramkissoon, a former friend of his from his days as a single man reeling from 9/11 angst and his family's abrupt departure, news which sets Hans off on the reverie that is the plot of "Netherland". In his mind he retraces the years after that fateful September in 2001, when his happy marriage began to crack and, literally, split apart, he lost interest in his successful career, and a desperate loneliness led him into a friendship with the charismatic but morally suspect Chuck Ramkissoon. Through Hans' odyssey O'Neill does not explore 9/11 so much as he explores life in the post-9/11 world. But that is not all; O'Neill also delves deeply into the immigrant experience and the psychological effects of adopting another country as your own.
"It is truly a terrible thing when questions of love and family and home are no longer answerable." After finding himself abandoned and confused, Hans begins a quest to rediscover himself. It all starts with something most New Yorkers - most Americans, in fact - would not even notice in their everyday life: cricket. Hans discovers a cricket league formed mostly by cab drivers and such who moved to the US from countries where cricket was a regular pastime. Hans has been unmoored in his own life, so he welcomes the opportunity to revisit a beloved sport and, through it, he attempts to put his life back into perspective - to regain the sense of control that has been stolen from him ("what was an inning if not a singular opportunity to face down, by dint of effort and skill and self-mastery, the variable world?"). Hans quickly discovers that cricket in New York is very different from the European version of the game he is accustomed to, and with this metaphor intact O'Neill uses American cricket to explore the larger theme of immigration: what compromises are made, what are the sacrifices, and what aspects of the self are lost when one moves from one country to another? What does one find? What are the gains? It's actually rather fascinating. Were this and Hans' desolation as he wanders alone in the city the primary focus of the novel it would have been better.
Unfortunately, O'Neill is more interested in introducing Chuck Ramkissoon, a Trinidadian émigré who schemes to bring cricket to the forefront of the American consciousness, and a fortune to himself in the process. His is the more traditional, prosaic tale of one man's desperation for the American dream - heightened by the fact that as an immigrant, Chuck feels like he is only seeking what he was promised, but nevertheless the plotline feels stale and unimaginative. And that is particularly disappointing because the rest of "Netherland" sparkles with originality and wit. When it inevitably comes to light that Chuck has been dealing with shady characters to make his American dream a reality, sealing his fate once and for all, it is not terribly surprising or compelling. It's too fitting, really.
"Netherland" is at its best when it is telling Hans' story, and it is unfortunate then that the bulk of it is tied up so intimately with Chuck's story - because Hans' journey is infinitely more effecting and touching. Still, O'Neill proves to be a remarkably talented writer, and it will be interesting to see what his next move is.
Grade: B
Book Review: Beautiful but understated, rather like cricket
Summary: 4 Stars
Hans van den Broek is a pleasant chap: observant, often witty, cricket-loving, and kind to the strangest of strangers. This characterization of the narrator, along with some beautiful and perceptive prose, is what gives Netherland its special appeal, for this is a retrospective novel of sparse drama and little suspense. Another attraction is the unusual milieu: the New York cricket scene, and its largely South Asian and West Indian membership. A second milieu, the famously offbeat Chelsea Hotel, is a tad predictable as an urban microcosm (as is the amiable eccentricity of its inhabitants) but O'Neill refreshes the device with gentle humor. Passages set in Holland and London add further cosmopolitanism, quite fitting to this story of global migrants.
Chuck Ramkissoon, Hans's driven and ethically suspect friend, is a Trinidadian Gatsby for our times, a self-centered dreamer with a shady fortune who still inspires affection and loyalty. And there's much of Nick Carraway about Hans: a level-headed outsider both drawn to and wary of his exotic friend, a capable man who makes a decent living in the city but opts to follow his heart and leave. Where Netherland differs most from Gatsby is in its embrace of New York. This is a "post-9/11 novel," or so Michiko Kakutani described it in the New York Times. While there's some discussion of the malaise that followed the attacks - the strain threatens to scupper Hans' marriage to Rachel (a smart but shrill Brit) - O'Neill is more interested in celebrating New York's endless power to create possibility for new generations of immigrants. NYC is a vortex of enthusiasm, and though Hans is rather unhappy there, he warms to its energizing, regenerating effect on others.
Without overdoing it, O'Neill peppers his tale with arresting imagery. The Staten Island cricket field where Hans plays is surrounded by houses with elaborate gardens. "For as long as anyone can remember, the local residents have tolerated the occasional crash of a cricket ball, arriving like a gigantic meteoritic cranberry, into their flowering shrubbery." O'Neill does a fine job of explaining cricket to the American majority without boring the initiated.
The story has a meandering structure, switching back and forth in time, a fractured chronology that encourages connections and contrasts. But it's overdone. It's self-consciously literary. The main effect is to de-emphasize drama and keep the focus on observation, yet O'Neill could have struck a better balance between action and thought. We have the makings of a much more emotionally compelling story - What will happen to Chuck and his dream of a first-class Brooklyn cricket ground? What will happen to Hans and Rachel's marriage? - but these outcomes are revealed within the first two pages. Rather like a five-day game of cricket between teams unafraid of a draw, the novel is an exercise in understatement, eliciting only moderate emotional investment, mildly pleasurable with occasional flashes of brilliance.
Since critics (NYT, New Yorker) consider Netherland exemplary, it seems to me that Tom Wolfe's complaint of 20 years ago is still valid: modern fiction remains too concerned with literary effect and intellectual contemplation and too little interested in enthralling stories. I'm not arguing for gratuitous pushing of readers' buttons, or for catharsis, but for the kind of alternately unsettling and inspiring storytelling that Wolfe advocated when he called for a return to the spirit of Dickens. The "post-9/11 novel" surely deserves as much.
Book Review: Authentic expat experience
Summary: 4 Stars
The story begins with the protagonist, Hans van den Broek who is a Holland native living in London with his wife and son, reminiscing about his time spent living for a few years in New York and wondering whatever happened to a West Indian friend he made there named Chuck Ramkissoon. Such details go a long way to explain how cricket can produce such cultural fusion when it becomes part of the expatriate experience, taking comfort in something old and familiar and treasuring it when thrown into a whole new world.
The novel deals a lot with the awkwardness of life after 9/11 and feeling out of place in the world, not knowing how to proceed with day-to-day activities after a life-changing event. The story can be hard to follow at times as it unfolds in a unique anachronistic style that more closely resembles stream of consciousness as opposed to flashbacks or reflections. But one of the book's biggest strengths, and what makes it feel authentic, lies in the attention to detail and experiences that could only be known by an expat, and especially one who plays cricket.
There are other little anecdotes too, like the great northeast summer blackout of 2003 and the Thanksgiving Day parade balloon characters that blew out of control in the wind that same year. They make the reader get involved and relate to how Hans experienced these events. People from the New York metro area will appreciate moments like these more than others, which is absolutely fine because it adds more character to the story.
But I suppose the best and most vivid element of the book is Hans' relations with the people around him, especially immigrants. Hans is the only white player in any of the matches he ever plays in. Writing this review as a white American cricketer, this is very believable. There has been one time in three years where an opponent had a white player in their team, an Australian at a match in Kansas. Hans meets Chuck, a black Trinidadian who at the time is an umpire. In part through Chuck's knowledge of the local communities, Hans comes across people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the West Indies, and Sri Lanka. Most of Hans' fellow players have low paying jobs and live in poor run down areas of Brooklyn and the other boroughs. It generally isn't possible to find Australian or English or Kiwi expats playing cricket in the US, because more often than not, these people are white and they fit in seamlessly with the rest of mainstream America. It is a different story for almost all non-white immigrants. They have to stick together if they want to survive and one of the ways to do that is building around a sport, in this case with cricket. Hans is all alone though. His family has left him and his job just is. He tries to fit in with America by joining a fantasy football pool with the night staff at the Chelsea Hotel, his current residence, but it is beyond him. So he crosses over the cultural divide of America to get back into something he knows, the culture of cricket.
Netherland has the requisite twists and turns of any good plot to keep readers on their toes. O'Neill also has a creative, 21st century approach to writing about relationships and love. It definitely makes the book original. However, what makes it worth reading is its authenticity, something that is as hard to accomplish as keeping the ball on the ground when playing cricket in America.