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Netherland: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Joseph O'neill
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $8.95 (37%)
New (22) Used (10) Collectible (9) from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 294
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307377040
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780307377043
ASIN: 0307377040
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 As patchy as a cricket pitch... December 31, 2008
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 the end, which is a shame, because there are many superb moments in this original novel.
 As boring as Cricket December 30, 2008
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 hard to believe. Any woman who read this book would see why she left him.
 Don't think I can finish it. December 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 happen that would make it worth reading, but after reading these reviews I don't think so. As someone told me today when I was complaining about this book, "Life is too short to read bad books."
 The book lives up to the hype December 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a book for people who love language and writing, and equally for people who love knowing the details of things. Even being praised on every end of the year list doesn't ruin the fact that this is just a solidly good book.
Of New York, for New Yorkers December 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Netherland is a love story, where the love object is a post-9/11 New York City. Given a choice between staying in NYC and following his wife back to London, Hans stays for another two years, drinking in all that is NYC while adrift from his family.
I noticed that most of the 5 star reviews were from people in NYC. Similarly, of the 6 blurbs on the back cover, 5 were from distinctly New York publications (New York Times, NYT Review of Books, New Yorker, etc.) New Yorkers love their city, and 250 pages of praise of all of the wonders and wonderment of an outsiders view of NYC seems to strike a happy chord with them. As a non-New Yorker, though, I was mostly bored.
What little plot there is could be decribed in a paragraph, and it isn't relevant anyway. The writing is smooth and clean, but not particularly poetic or beautiful. Which leaves 250 pages describing how wonderful NYC is. If you recognize the places and people, you'll probably enjoy it. If not, then like me, you're likely to find it boring.
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