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Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries) |
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Amazon Sales Rank: 5695
Publication Date: 2009-05-07
Release Date: 2009-05-07
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307388778
Type: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 272
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In a New York City made phantasmagorical by the events of 9/11, and left alone after his English wife and son return to London, Hans van den Broek 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. As the two men share their vastly different experiences of contemporary immigrant life in America, an unforgettable portrait emerges of an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.
Average Rating: 
Review: 2009-11-18
cricket!
I live in New York and am very familiar with the The Hague cricket clubs (HCC in particular), thus reading this book was a recognition of both worlds. I recall riding in a taxi from Manhattan to JFK on my way to The Hague in the Netherlands, when I saw the cricket matches in a park on the right and was very surprised to see cricket being played there, rather than baseball.
The descriptions of life in The Hague, and more specifically in the Benoordenhout are very accurate. The very homogeneous way of dressing - which Hans van den Broek describes when writing about his mother - was typical for those days. For a foreigner (assuming the author was a foreigner when living in the Netherlands) to pick up such details is remarkable.
To read about the "Netherland" was fascinating and I look forward to reading more written by Joseph O'Neill!
Review: 2009-11-14
Brilliant and consuming
I loved this book. It's beautifully written and so human. I couldn't put it down. You can see the characters so vividly, you feel you know them personally.
Walking down the street I would look at someone and say, "that's Hans Van den Broek" or "there's Chuck Ramkissoon", two main charcters from the book.
This story reminds you to embrace life, and be thankful for second chances.
I Can't recommend this book enough.
Review: 2009-11-13
Dullest book I have read in a long time
I am baffled by the numerous positive reviews of this book. Then again, as of today, the average Amazon reviewer score is 3.5 stars which is low score for Amazon. I took a random unscientific sample of the folks who gave Netherland 5 stars and found that a little more than half of them are from the NYC area. I can understand reading about familiar places may be enjoyable. I found nothing redeeming about this book. The characters were poorly developed so I cannot even comment whether they were likeable or not. The writing is cumbersome and hard to get through. Finally there is no story or plot.
Many have compared O'Neill to McEwan but I strongly disagree. McEwan's prose is crisp and simple. Netherland is far from any of McEwan's books. Similarly, Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day" was a simple novel with almost no plot but the writing was so fluid and the character development so well done that it cannot be compared to Netherland. Save yourself some pain (unless you're from NYC?) and don't waste your time with this one.
Review: 2009-10-31
Calamitous events often cause us to reassess our lives
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.
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Amazon List Price: $14.95
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