Netherland (#11)

I am writing this the morning after a big celebrity death day.  Less than 24 hours later, I have already reached the saturation points over the the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.  While the former had long been expected, the second was a quite a shock... though I will politically incorrectly add that I doubted Jackson would ever die of old age and/or that he lasted this long.  The 24 hour news cycle + Internet has just created this hysteria that just gets overwhelming... it's like trying to get a bone out of dog that's not willing to let it go... shake, shake, shake it!  I get to a point very quickly where I just need to shut it off and as I status'd yesterday, put the P in the RIP... let these people rest in peace... and quiet.

So now you're wondering how do I make the segue into a book review?  I was wondering that too, but then it kind of made sense as Netherland by Joseph O'Neill is a book with 9/11 - arguably (or not?!) the greatest 24 hour news cycle event to date - at its core, but hardly makes mention of it... which given my above reaction, tells you it is this kind of subtlety and finesse I like/prefer.

Though first a bit how I got to this book.  I always find book selection and interesting thing. Netherland was one of the most critically acclaimed books of 2008, though oddly enough not seeming to make any of those year-end best-of lists, though it did snag the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.  Though it received its biggest endorsement of sorts when President Barack Obama told the NY Times Magazine that he was reading it... though I was almost done with the book before hearing that, so I was a ahead of the curve!

Our protagonist is Hans van den Broek (which gives you the first clue behind the title) who finds himself alone in NYC after his wife and child return to London in the aftermath of 9/11... and befriends the mysterious/shady character Chuck Ramkissoon (that's character as in "he's a real character"... not the character in book way, though that certainly applies as well) at one of the many cricket games played around the NY metro area.  Now there's a plot I am sure you haven't read before!  

The story does take some odd twists and turns and perhaps a bit too convoluted for my taste... and there was a whole lot about cricket, particularly at the beginning of the novel... that had me questioning what I had gotten myself into.  And while I won't say that this was my most favorite book of all-time or the year for that matter, it was still an amazing book that I am glad that I read.

There were many instances where O'Neill just floored me with his beautifully poetic prose... which at times seemingly came out of nowhere...

Perhaps the relevant truth - and it's one whose existence was apparent to my wife, and I'm sure to much of the world, long before it became apparent to me - is that we all find ourselves in temporal currents and that unless you're paying attention you'll discover, often too late, that an undertow of weeks or of years has pulled you deep into trouble.

This one had particular meaning to me...

On our way out we passed through downtown Phoenix.  It was seemingly an uninhabited place given over to multilevel garages that, with their stacked lateral voids, almost duplicated the office blocks and their bands of tinted glass.

So not a book for everyone and I am guessing those passages might tell you if you are or or not one of them... a book you might not love, but it difficult not to admire and respect it.

Comments

[Scot]

63 WORDS IN ONE SENTENCE?!? I thought Chritopher Rice was the only novelist without an editor these days. I get lost reading run-on sentences like that. I start looking for punctuation rather than meaning.

By the way, I think Jason Lewis does 38 better than most.