Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

Just finished "Netherland" and wanted to jot down a few impressions. One is that I enjoyed reading this novel very much. O'Neill'sdescriptive powers are awesome and images he creates linger on. The title "Netherland" refers to Holland, where the narrator [and the author] grew up, and also to New York State, which was the former Dutch colony "New Netherland." But "Netherland" also means literally "low land," as in the French term for Belgium and Holland "les pays bas." This is the nadir of Hans van der Broek's life: his lawyer wife has taken his son back to her parents' home in England, fleeing NYC in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. [Her criticisms of the U.S. response to these attacks are severe.] Hans wanders the island of Manhattan, lost in his reveries of his childhood in Holland and his failed marriage, until by chance he's reunited with an old beloved hobby from his youth: the game of cricket. Thus enters the transitional figure Chuck Ramkissoon, who leads Hans through a world so different from his own that Hans is forced to confront himself via memories of childhood, his mother, and his marriage to Rachel and to an ultimate decision to re-take his life. A great read!