Joseph O’Neill’s latest book Netherland, though set in New York in the aftermath of 9/11, is not really a book about 9/11. The tragedy does, however, serve its purpose well as a background character, the senselessness and meaninglessness of its atrocity a muted dullness hovering in the atmosphere, permeating its way straight through to the hero’s soul. The hero, in this case, is Hans van der Broek, an English citizen born Dutch, who finds himself living amongst the eccentric occupants of a Chelsea hotel as his apartment, the one he shared with his wife Rachel and young son Jake, lies dormant amidst the post 9/11 apocalyptic landscape. Rachel, sensing a disconnectedness to the city and to Hans himself, has taken Jake back to live with her parents in England, while Hans attempts to find meaning and purpose in his life, drifting through his uneasy days in a meloncholic state of ennui. He finds this purpose in the form of the sport of cricket, a game he had played as a child and rediscovers being played by immigrants in parks all over the city. O’Neill’s depictions of the game are artful masterpieces. It is in these scenes where the novel really takes off, thanks in no small part to the presence of Chuck Ramkissoon, a lifelong cricket devotee from Trinidad who aspires to build a massive stadium in Brooklyn, where the entire country will become enamored of the game he so loves. It is in the game of cricket where Hans rediscovers himself, and readers are better off for the journey.
3 stars. May 2008
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