In Joseph O'Neill's third novel, Netherland (Pantheon), a Dutch investment analyst named Hans is left to wander the "Promethean impudence" of Times Square and the "benign monumentalism" of Seventh Avenue after his English wife and their young son return to London in the wake of 9/11. Retreating into his boyhood pastime, cricket, Hans sparks an unlikely friendship with Chuck Ramkissoon, a wily Trinidadian dreamer with a strong sense of history. Chuck gives Hans entrée into a world he never knew existed and rejuvenates him with his lofty ideas and wheeling-and-dealing ways. Just as Hans reads the field at Staten Island's Walker Park and thinks, "Play such orthodox shots in New York and the ball will more than likely halt in the tangled, weedy ground cover," O'Neill, in this truly original glimpse into the city's lesser-known corners, cuts through the thicket with sharp observations on the quotidian realities of marriage, the thin line between acceptance and settling, and that unique brand of shame felt by good men, like Hans, who get lost.

More: Books >>