Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this book tedious to read. I was annoyed at what felt to me to be very inorganic jumping back and forth through time; it didn’t seem like the jumping improved the narrative by giving me the information when I needed it, but just confused the narrative. The book is a little bit of a love letter to New York between 2001-2003 or so. He gets lots of details of New York right, including the 2003 blackout, but seems to miss the mark on 911 itself. It’s not a 911 book, but if you plant your characters right then and there you need to get the weirdness right.

I wasn’t bothered by the wife’s reasons for leaving, I think it was clear that it wasn’t about her fear of living in the city alone, but I was confused about her refusal to discuss it with Hans. Hans is so passive that he doesn’t insist she talk about it, and he never gains any self-awareness about how insane that is.

I found the relationship with Chuck mostly uncomfortable- two people trying to use each other for contrary ends. Which is bad, because the novel is supposed to mostly be about that relationship. O think Han’s relationship with his mentally ill Angel neighbor is more interesting but insufficiently explored.

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