Netherland

Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill (Vintage, 2009) was on everybody’s “Best of “ lists last year. Set in post 9/11 New York City, the interesting aspect is that the narrator is a Dutch-transplanted Londoner living in NY, so you get the “outsiders” view of NY.  Hans’ wife is so rattled by 9/11 that she takes their son and moves back to London.  Hans, who is lost and lonely, entertains his childhood love of cricket by joining a league made up of West Indian New Yorkers, including the larger-than-life Trinidadian entrepreneur, Chuck Ramkissoon.  The unlikely friendship rises and falls in tandem with Hans’ marriage.  An unusual view of an “other” NY populated by immigrants and the fading promise of the American dream, as well as a view into one man’s life and marriage.  Many of the reviews of Netherland compared Chuck Ramkissoon to a modern day Gatsby, which prompted me to re-read The Great Gatsby.  It’s a surprisingly quick read  and the parallels between Gatsby’s portrayal of  post WWI’s end of American innocence and Netherland’s portrayal of post 9/11 is apparent, as are those between Gatsby and Ramkissoon.  Its always enlightening to re-read a classic and compare what you thought about it then vs now!