Books Netherland: A Novel
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Awful
I tried and tried to like this book. It is a book that is written to show off the authors use of the Enlish language. The characters are unlikable. All of them. He even managed to make a colorful guy like Chuck boring. The narrator, yes we understand the Dutch are stereotyped as unemotional, is a zombie and floats through 9/11, separation from his wife and son and the death of his closest friend in NY with no believable reaction. The author claims that Hans is angry, upset and hurt, but the jumble of vocabulary words and drawn out paragraphs that hop back and forth between time and space make you forget that the character is experiencing something and gets you lost in the maze of prose. The descriptions of New York are the most interesting part of this book. I was not aware that cricket was played in Staten Island, but then does there really need to be a 260 page book written just to tell us that?

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Rating: - Not good
I couldn't even finish this book. I found it hard to stay engaged and REALLY found it hard to pretend that I even liked (or understood) the game of cricket. I am glad that this was a library book instead of a purchase.

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Rating: - Amazingly sublime
Joe O'Neill captures the angst that pervaded the city post 9/11 by channeling a collection of fascinating characters and genres.
Even if you're not a cricket fan you'll get this!

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Rating: - Lyrical and flexible prose captures relationships and sports
Netherland is the story of a couple (Hans and Rachel) living in New York City with their young son. After the September 11th terrorist attacks, Rachel moves back to England where she's from with their son, claiming she can't raise a child in such a "diseased" country. After being left behind in NYC by his family, Hans immerses himself in the city's cricket subculture and befriends Chuck Ramkissoon, a Trinidadian entrepreneur who dabbles in shady enterprises and referees cricket matches on the side.

O'Neill's lyrical and flexible prose captures the nuanced complexity of intimate relationships with as much success as it describes the various strokes available to a batter in a cricket game ("the glance, the hook, the cut, the sweep, the cover drive, the pull and all those other offspring of technique conceived to send the cricket ball rolling and rolling, as if by magic, to the far-off edge of the playing field"). O'Neill's prose is the best part of this book.

The vivid character of Ramkissoon is the second best part of this book. Ramkissoon dreams of building a world-class cricket arena in Brooklyn and thinks cricket has the power to save the world. Despite his sentimental ideas, or maybe because of them, Ramkissoon is wholly authentic and believable. The character of Rachel, however, is not quite so well conceived. Although O'Neill accurately describes the unsettled feeling felt by many New Yorkers after September 11th, Rachel's abandonment of her marriage and escape back to England feels more like a plot device than a credible response.

This slim novel tackles many big themes, including marriage (its failure and its resurrection), happiness, September 11th and its aftereffects, sports (literally and as an analogy for human fellowship), and friendship. There's even an unsolved murder mystery. This unique and sensitive melding of stories offers something for everyone, but the book occasionally attempts too much. Certain underdeveloped threads and loose ends cause Netherland to fall short of a masterpiece.