May 02 2009
Netherland
Netherland - by Joseph O'Neill
So, apparently President Obama is reading Netherland. This is great news for Joseph O’Neill, the novel’s author.
Netherland, just out in paperback, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and, much to my surprise, cut from the short list. It was also one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008.
When I told a friend I was reading Netherland, he responded by asking if it was a book set “back in the day.” It’s not, but it was a fair question. The title is enigmatic and elusive: Netherland refers to the protagonist’s birth country (the Netherlands) and to the primary setting of the novel, New York City, once called New Amsterdam (“back in the day” of course). And going further, the title, read as nether-land, evokes images of some sort of underworld, a hidden realm that exists below the surface of the what’s most apparently visible, a nether world I understand to be the psyche of New Yorkers living in a post 9/11 world and struggling to make sense of life in a city that is often too immense, too overwhelming.
Narrated through the voice of a European immigrant, Netherland depicts a distinctively non-American view of New York. While Hans lives in The Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, he joins a men’s cricket team and becomes friends with various immigrants who all live in the city’s outer limits – Jersey City, Canarsie, Coney Island.
And while O’Neill gives the reader a feel for certain New York subcultures (for example, men’s cricket), he’s most interested in his main character, Hans van den Broek. O’Neill creates an in-depth and beautifully constructed narrator. Hans is nuanced and O’Neill allows us to hear the contradictions inherent in his rationalizations and to see how deeply flawed his personal life and his view of New York really are. His questionable friendships, failing marriage, and boredom with his career all contribute to O’Neill’s fresh take on the immigrant experience in America.
O’Neill’s comments on New York after 9/11 may be cynical and lonely, but they’re engaging on multiple levels and his insights are relevant to 21st century readers here and in Europe.
Read more: Book Reviews, Fiction, Immigration, Joseph O'Neill, Man Booker Prize, Netherland, New York City, the Netherlands, United StatesJess is a GCB alum and now contributes to the travel blog as often as she can. Jess attended Middlebury College so she loves the Green Mountain State. She also studied abroad in Paris for a semester and has traveled through much of western Europe and the UK. Her most recent travels include trips to Portland, OR, Los Angeles, CA and Spain (Madrid and Andalusia). She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
