Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland is a very good novel. A post 9/11 narrative, a book about post-modern living, love and family, a buddy story, a novel about exiles (modernism, anyone?, a love story, a narrative about New York City – it is more than fiction, it is literature.
Snobbish, perhaps, but outstanding fiction can transcend itself and transport the reader. This one did. I thought of The Good Soldier and Magic Mountain and Conrad, as well as a whole raft of recent authors who are trying to make sense of our strange world.
I am glad that I gave it the time and the consideration. It is well worth it.
David Potash