Netherland in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 01, 2009 John rated it really liked it

Shelves: no-real-lgbt-characters

An alternately brilliant and disappointing novel that doesn't quite measure up to the hype. When I saw that both Michiko and James Wood had pretty much anointed this as one of the greatest New York novels ever, how could I not read it? In their defense, much of the panty-throwing is justified. I don't know that I've come across such breathtaking descriptions of the five burroughs and the imagining of the Chuck Ramikissoon character was brilliant. I still have no interest in cricket, but apprecia An alternately brilliant and disappointing novel that doesn't quite measure up to the hype. When I saw that both Michiko and James Wood had pretty much anointed this as one of the greatest New York novels ever, how could I not read it? In their defense, much of the panty-throwing is justified. I don't know that I've come across such breathtaking descriptions of the five burroughs and the imagining of the Chuck Ramikissoon character was brilliant. I still have no interest in cricket, but appreciated its metaphoric use. So much of what I associate with NYC is there: aimlessness, check, loneliness in the crowd, check, random encounters with people you'd never expect to associate with, check. An impressive amount of territory - thematically and geographically - is covered in a relatively breezy 250 pages. In the face of all this goodness, the flaws are arguably worth overlooking, but a masterpiece this is not. Probably the biggest problem is that O'Neill's protagonist provides surprisingly little insight into the marital struggles and reconciliation that in the end, come off as crude plot devices. This is just one of several problems I had with the narration, which at times, is awkward and totally unconvincing. I didn't really believe this person was a Wall Street research analyst (for the oil & gas sector at that) and cringed at the sporadic use of obscenities. For me, the S&M scene was a strained and failed attempt to shock. I also wondered where the flesh-and-blood gay people were, particularly given that the narrator lived in Chelsea for most of the book. O'Neill gives us only one queer character - a transvestite Turkish emigre in angel wings who is more tacked-on literary device (particularly when splayed on the roof of a synagogue) than believable person. And this might just be some oversensitivity to the European authorship, but did it not seem like most of the Americans in this book (outside of the cricket circle) were caricatures (the racist, sexist, Wall Street co-workers to the rude DMV employees)? Despite these complaints, I would still highly recommend this to anyone who's ever spent a lot of time in New York and especially to the cricket aficiondos, wherever you are. ...more

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Jun 23, 2014 Rebekah rated it it was ok

Shelves: genre-book-club, genre-contemporary, genre-novels, genre-literary-fiction, genre-new-york, setting-us-new-york, well-read

I think I am not a fan of contemporary literature because I keep finding the critically acclaimed novels awful, boring, and pretentious. This was no exception. There is always some ridiculously wealthy middle-aged white man moaning about the banality of life. This dude has no emotions whatsoever and is bland as toast. His equally wealthy and boring and emotionless wife moves to London after 9/11 for no real clear reason, (except she is scared and a coward?), but it's okay, because he can do a tr ...more

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