Netherland - Joseph O'Neill

Date of Reading: 17/12/2012

Author: Joseph O'Neill

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Place: London

Year: 2008

          There are some times when our voice is not heard. Oh, this is not about family. Suppose I write a review of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (never been able to read that), and declare it not worth the trouble, will that change anything? No, I will be considered a stupid lad with not much standard.

         This book is such a sad case; it has got good reviews, but I don't like it. Why? Eventually, as in 'Waiting for Godot', nothing happens, 'nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful'. Story (if you think there is one) concerns the situation of New York after the attack on World Trade Center. Novel fails to provide that feeling of loss to one that live far away from the issues connected with it. Like the narrator, Hans, author too seems confused or too  reluctant to make a daring statement which might cause some political controversy.

          Except for the protagonist, and perhaps Chuck too, all the characters are underdeveloped. No chronological order is followed which makes it really hard to keep with the times. All in all it looks like a verbal play with words we have to look continuously into the dictionary, to make some sense out of it.

          Hans van den Broek, a Dutch born London settler, moves to New York when his wife Rachel who works in a law firm, gets transferred to there. He is a family man with few friends outside, and when Jake, his son is born his life revolves around him. Then the 9/11 attacks happen and their life is turned upside down, fear and security sirens permeates the area. Rachel, fearing their son's safety, moves back to her ancestral home in England and Hans is left alone with the eccentric inmates of Chelsea Hotel while his wife requests time to think about their marriage.

           Now Hans' refuge in weekends is cricket, the game he played as a child in Holland while his mother keeps watch; the sense of order and justice is still retained by the game which reassures him that there is something that is unchanged.
         It is in one of these matches he meets Chuck Ramkissoon, the Trinidadian business entrepreneur. He is proud to be a citizen of America and cherishes a plan to civilize this new home country by teaching them cricket. His intention is to turn Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to a cricket stadium (which he terms patriotically as 'Bald Eagle Field') and Hans too join in the work. 
         Once in every two weeks, he travels to London to be with Jake. Rachel soon finds a new boyfriend -- Martin; in order to win back his wife, Hans finally decides to leave this adopted country. Meanwhile he has found out that Chuck's gambling business has its dark side and was therefore not at all reluctant to leave that friendship.

Joseph O'Neill

          Everything goes according to plan, and with Rachel stability too comes back. Then in 2006, he gets informed that Chuck's remains are fished out from Gowanus Canal. This brings back old memories and this forms the novel.