PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Netherland: A Novel
Set in New York after 9/11, Netherland follows an immigrant’s loneliness and search for belonging through cricket and friendship. It is a first-person story of urban loss, hope, and personal renewal told with delicate precision.
Work Information
In post-9/11 New York, the novel traces an immigrant’s loneliness and renewal.
In post-9/11 New York, a man searches for a place to belong through cricket and friendship. The novel shows both the city’s broken sense of itself and a private recovery emerging from it.
Review Summaries
-
The novel is highly regarded for its sense of immigration and its blend of friendship and loss. Many readers are drawn to the quiet way urban loneliness expands within the restrained narration.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Pantheon
- Published
- 2008-05-20
- Pages
- 272 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.99 x 2.72 x 23.62 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780307377043
- ISBN-10
- 0307377040
- Price
- 2016 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary
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.
Joseph O'Neill was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1964 and grew up in Mozambique, South Africa, Iran, Turkey, and Holland. His previous works include the novels This is the Life and The Breezes and the non-fiction book Blood-Dark Track , a family history centered on the mysterious imprisonment of both his grandfathers during World War II, which was an NYT Notable Book. He writes regularly for The Atlantic . He lives with his family in New York City.
Reviews
-
A book which tries to answer CLR James's rhetorical question: "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"
-
EXCELENTE REGALO Y SERVICIO DE ENTREGA
-
Netherland could have easily been written after any major catastrope. The point of the book is that after a horrific event such as 9/11, people are often moved to reevaluate their lives in the context of what is important and what is trivial. This reassessment if often colored by ones background and upbringing and can highlight incompatibilities between husbands and wives. Hans is a tall, quiet, intelligent, upwardly mobile Dutchman, married to Rachel, an Englishwomen and a high powered, eloquent lawyer. Rachel is a "doer". She is emotional and very vocal about her feelings. She is, for Hans, a "human flashlight" whereas Hans "naturally associates loves with a house fallen into silence" - a result of his Dutch upbringing in a single parent home. In the midst of this tension between Rachel and Hans is Chuck Ramkisoon, a Trinidadian and a naturalized American citizen who is essentially Hans' only (and unlikely) friend in New York - essentially Hans' lifeline after Rachel leaves Hans and moves back to London after 9/11. Chuck is easily the most interesting character in the book. He is typical of the immigrant who comes to the U.S. in search of the American Dream - an intelligent, self taught man who questions Hans about his business in the same way as a professional fund manager. He umpires cricket games, has a kosher sushi restaurant with a Jewish partner and runs a wei wei ring -illegal gambling. He's a petty crook with big dreams and big ideas about starting a cricket club in new York that will solve the world's ills. He has a wife and a mistress. He has businesses both legal and illegal. He's a messy guy with a messy life but as his partner says, he has enough life in him for ten people. Without giving away the entire story, I believe the author's point is that while we are all, of course, a product of our environment and upbringing, the one thing we ultimately all seek is love and human connections. One word of caution for people who have read the "one star" comments. Yes, there are come sentances that may come off as convoluted. That said, these are few and far between. Overall, this is a well written book that deserves it's cricital acclaim.
-
About one year after I read this novel I noticed that the President of the United States had praised this superb novel. I don't know what President Obama thought of the cricket scenes that are important to the main protagonist, Hans van den Broek, , but for this reader they are some of the greatest cricket scenes in all literature; everything from the cricket equipment used to the thought processes of a diffident batsmen are so redolent of "real" cricket! It is by no means a novel about cricket, (that is an important outlet for the main protagonist played in New York City of all places), but an intriguing account of a disintegrating marriage, remembrances of the unusual and possibly sinister Chuck, with vivid memories of Han's childhood days in the Netherlands which have had such a dramatic effect upon all that followed. A memorable novel, one that is high upon my imaginary "must read again novels"!
-
Some people will agree that the most important thing in life is maintainig ground contact, others will not and many will disregard such a statement on the count of its being too lofty. Having said that, I will nevertheless give this book the praise I think it deserves. If you are looking for a text that decently measures the beauty of language and views action with clear and discreat coolness, this may be it. Life sometimes is drama and turmoil and in its management profoundness and hipocrisy oftentimes are close friends. If a work of art manages to separate these with light- handed gentleness without dimishing the character of the performer and instead strengthening that character, you know you have found a gem, which as such merits the attribute "highly recommended".