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US Mall 1 - Netherland: A Novel
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List Price: $23.95
Our Price: $15.89
Your Save: $ 8.06 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Pantheon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780307377043
ISBN: 0307377040
Label: Pantheon
Manufacturer: Pantheon
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2008-05-20
Publisher: Pantheon
Release Date: 2008-05-20
Studio: Pantheon
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Recollections and reveries of the narrator's four worlds
Comment: "Netherland" is a very good read. Hans van den Broek, Joseph O'Neill's protagonist and narrator is of four worlds: childhood in The Hague; pre-9/11 London; 9/11-era New York City; and post-9/11 London. O'Neill's tale weaves together van den Broek's recollections interrupted by reveries of these four time periods. Hans is reflective, ruminative, self-analyzing, self-critical. The writing bears that level of introspection.
Despite this complexity, you never lose the plot. Nor does the writing ever turn turgid. Much of that is due to the presence of Chuck Ramkissoon, Hans' unlikely boon companion. The unlikely Dutch-Trinidadian combination bond over the sport of cricket and Chuck's entrepreneurial aspirations revolving around it. In Publisher's Weekly review, Chuck is called "a self-mythologizing entrepreneur-gangster." We learn slowly from Hans the narrator of Chuck's gangster side. It's like he's loath to believe it. We are, too, as Chuck seems the most likable sort of fellow. But juxtaposing these warm thoughts is our introduction to Chuck in O'Neill's opening bars: fished from a New York City canal, arms tied behind his back. Somehow, the winsome Chuck collected a vengeful enemy. It takes Hans some time to get there, but in the book's later stages we see - as does Hans, reluctantly - how that might be.
Customer Rating:
Summary: As patchy as a cricket pitch...
Comment:
This is certainly a good book. The writing is, as James Wood said in his review of it, "exquisite". It has been compared to The Great Gatsby, too, but I only fitfully saw a resemblance there. But I hate to say that it has been over-praised, even though I always want to validate the opinions of James Wood, who is a great critic. The wording is occasionally similar to that of W.G Sebald, as well as Fitzgerald, but it never quite reaches the sublime heights of those two writers. It left me indifferent by the end, which is a shame, because there are many superb moments in this original novel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: As boring as Cricket
Comment: I should have put the book down when I read the word cricket. This book will put you to sleep like an 8hour cricket match. There was a lot of uninteresting details that strecthed the book out. The most exciting character in the book was Chuck and if the book was in his perspective it would have been far more interesting. The main character Hans is an oil analyst and seems to have the personality of a tree branch. We go thru the ups and downs of his volatile marriage and magically they make up which I find hard to believe. Any woman who read this book would see why she left him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't think I can finish it.
Comment: I probably shouldn't write a review of a book I haven't finished, but I agree with everyone else here who has given a negative review. I have a graduate degree in English, so I think I have a little bit of credibility when I say that this is not a good book.
The writing may occasionally be interesting, but most of the time it's not, especially when it's about cricket. The narrator is not likable (unless you are the narrator, he seems to think pretty highly of himself). I keep thinking something might happen that would make it worth reading, but after reading these reviews I don't think so. As someone told me today when I was complaining about this book, "Life is too short to read bad books."
Customer Rating:
Summary: The book lives up to the hype
Comment: This is a book for people who love language and writing, and equally for people who love knowing the details of things. Even being praised on every end of the year list doesn't ruin the fact that this is just a solidly good book.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Recollections and reveries of the narrator's four worlds
Comment: "Netherland" is a very good read. Hans van den Broek, Joseph O'Neill's protagonist and narrator is of four worlds: childhood in The Hague; pre-9/11 London; 9/11-era New York City; and post-9/11 London. O'Neill's tale weaves together van den Broek's recollections interrupted by reveries of these four time periods. Hans is reflective, ruminative, self-analyzing, self-critical. The writing bears that level of introspection.
Despite this complexity, you never lose the plot. Nor does the writing ever turn turgid. Much of that is due to the presence of Chuck Ramkissoon, Hans' unlikely boon companion. The unlikely Dutch-Trinidadian combination bond over the sport of cricket and Chuck's entrepreneurial aspirations revolving around it. In Publisher's Weekly review, Chuck is called "a self-mythologizing entrepreneur-gangster." We learn slowly from Hans the narrator of Chuck's gangster side. It's like he's loath to believe it. We are, too, as Chuck seems the most likable sort of fellow. But juxtaposing these warm thoughts is our introduction to Chuck in O'Neill's opening bars: fished from a New York City canal, arms tied behind his back. Somehow, the winsome Chuck collected a vengeful enemy. It takes Hans some time to get there, but in the book's later stages we see - as does Hans, reluctantly - how that might be.
Customer Rating:
Summary: As patchy as a cricket pitch...
Comment:
This is certainly a good book. The writing is, as James Wood said in his review of it, "exquisite". It has been compared to The Great Gatsby, too, but I only fitfully saw a resemblance there. But I hate to say that it has been over-praised, even though I always want to validate the opinions of James Wood, who is a great critic. The wording is occasionally similar to that of W.G Sebald, as well as Fitzgerald, but it never quite reaches the sublime heights of those two writers. It left me indifferent by the end, which is a shame, because there are many superb moments in this original novel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: As boring as Cricket
Comment: I should have put the book down when I read the word cricket. This book will put you to sleep like an 8hour cricket match. There was a lot of uninteresting details that strecthed the book out. The most exciting character in the book was Chuck and if the book was in his perspective it would have been far more interesting. The main character Hans is an oil analyst and seems to have the personality of a tree branch. We go thru the ups and downs of his volatile marriage and magically they make up which I find hard to believe. Any woman who read this book would see why she left him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't think I can finish it.
Comment: I probably shouldn't write a review of a book I haven't finished, but I agree with everyone else here who has given a negative review. I have a graduate degree in English, so I think I have a little bit of credibility when I say that this is not a good book.
The writing may occasionally be interesting, but most of the time it's not, especially when it's about cricket. The narrator is not likable (unless you are the narrator, he seems to think pretty highly of himself). I keep thinking something might happen that would make it worth reading, but after reading these reviews I don't think so. As someone told me today when I was complaining about this book, "Life is too short to read bad books."
Customer Rating:
Summary: The book lives up to the hype
Comment: This is a book for people who love language and writing, and equally for people who love knowing the details of things. Even being praised on every end of the year list doesn't ruin the fact that this is just a solidly good book.
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