Novel will remain important for years to come
Lynn Bonney, Special to The Gazette
Friday, August 7, 2009
“Netherland” by Joseph O’Neill, Pantheon Books, Random House, 2008, $23.95; Paper: Vintage Contemporaries, $14.95.
By Lynn Bonney
Special to The Gazette
Given the host of authors who have attempted to write the Great American Novel, it seems a bit ironic that an Irish-born, Holland-reared writer may have hit the bulls-eye. Joseph O’Neill’s slim “Netherland” is a disturbing, reassuring story, as hopeful as it is desolate and truly unforgettable.
“Netherland” is a story told by Hans van den Brock, a Dutch financial expert stranded in New York City after his wife and son have returned to their home in England. They never intended to live permanently in New York, but a few years abroad struck them as an adventure. That was before 9/11, the day everything changed.
Adrift and abandoned in a city that seems as detached as he feels, Hans meets Khamraj Ramkissoon, known as “Chuck,” a character reviewers have likened to Jay Gatsby. Chuck, a Trinidadian, is a cricket entrepreneur with dreams of opening a world-class cricket field.
For the present, he is keeping up his skills in an odd assemblage of foreign-born players, a group Hans joins, activating fond memories of his childhood. The game is a welcome diversion from a less than satisfying job and from the loneliness of separation from his wife and son.
Through his cricket friends, Hans explores the netherlands of New York’s outer boroughs. Through his memories, he revisits the Netherlands of his childhood. O’Neill constructs the novel as a series of events that trigger associative memories, one memory leading to another, taking readers inside Hans’ mind while keeping them at a distance. Although not the usual narrative form, it’s not hard to adapt to and it seems perfectly suited to telling Hans’ story and the story of a world turned upside down.
In O’Neill’s lyric prose, New York becomes an important character. Other authors have characterized the city, certainly, but it’s hard to think of one who’s done it better:
“I decided to walk homeward down Broadway. The route, unfamiliar to me, passed through the old Tin Pan Alley quarter, blocks now given over to wholesalers and street vendors and freight forwarders and import-exporters … dealing in stuffed toys, caps, novelties, human hair, two-dollar belts, one-dollar neckties, silver, perfumes, leather good rhinestones, streetwear, watches.”
The visual impact conjures memories, even for those who have never taken this walk in person. O’Neill has the ability to bring a smile while he’s breaking a heart. Such passages make up for cricket references that will perplex most American readers unfamiliar with the sport. (An understanding of cricket might add to the experience, but it’s certainly unnecessary to appreciate O’Neill’s achievement.)
“Netherland” isn’t a brand-new novel — it was published in 2008 — but it maintained a respectable spot on the bestseller list and is now available in paperback. This is a novel that, like Fitzgerald’s book, does much to capture American life at a particular point in history and it has the power to remain an important book for years to come.
F Emporia Public Library staff and volunteers write “On the Shelf.”