Netherland – Joseph O’Neill

"That low-slung, scruffily commercial thoroughfare that stands in almost surreal contrast to the tranquil residential blocks it traverses, a shoddily bustling strip of vehicles double-parked in front of gas stations, synagogues, mosques, beauty salons, bank branches, restaurants, funeral homes, auto body shops, supermarkets, assorted small businesses proclaiming provenances from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Armenia, Ghana, the Jewry, Christendom, Islam: it was on Coney Island Avenue, on a subsequent occasion, that Chuck and I came upon a bunch of South African Jews, in full sectarian regalia, watching televised cricket with a couple of Rastafarians in the front office of a Pakistani-run lumberyard."

Plot: A Dutch immigrant learns to drive in New York?  Let's build a cricket field?  The plot is rather obtuse here, but you don't really notice.  9/11 hangs over this book, but always at a distance.  A family breaks apart and the father is forced to actually live a life for possibly the first time in his life.  And he succeeds.  And along the way he sees America, just not the one we think we live in.


Why read it?:  Because it is simply fantastic.  Beautifully written, the 9/11 novel everyone was always looking for.  A land of immigrants, the signs and clues to their existence are still everywhere, and underneath a sea of white, they remain to make America run.

It is hard for me to imagine a more beautifully written book than this.  The way O’Neill puts words into phrases and sentences is truly remarkable, and with that he has put together the most brilliant take on 9/11 that I have ever read.  O’Neill comes at from the view of a foreigner and focuses on immigrants who seem to be on the margins of American society, but are, in fact, an integral part of the fabric that makes America what it is.

The novel is narrated by Hans, a Dutch equities analyst, who along with his British solicitor wife Rachel and their young son, is living in Manhattan when the Towers fall.  Forced to leave their luxury apartment, they end up somehow in the Chelsea Hotel.  The marriage deteriorates there and Rachel, increasingly uncomfortable in Bush’s America, soon leaves for England with their son.  Hans has difficulty fitting in under the best of circumstances, and his current situation has left him at a loss.  Alone, unsure of how he feels politically, or if he even feels that way at all, he finds solace in the game of cricket, which he played when he was younger back home, and had found it a way to meld into British society when he was there.  However, cricket in the US is a different fish;  played on makeshift fields and involving predominantly Caribbean and Asian immigrants, Hans is the odd man out here.   But he is welcomed into their world, and guided by Chuck Ramkissoon, a native of Trinidad, who has dreams of uniting the world through cricket.  It doesn’t take much to find the commonality with Jay Gatsby here; O’Neill makes the link fairly obvious. While the shattered American dream in Netherland is not the same as Fitzgerald was writing about, the characters in Netherland like Chuck are seeking one for their own.  Chuck, unfortunately, for all his optimism and visions of a better future, has like Jay Gatsby, a darker side that will eventually consume him.

This is a story that motors along at its own pace; often I was unsure exactly where it was headed.  But even then, it is utterly brilliant.  The Chelsea, no longer inhabited by Patti or Robert or even Sid and Nancy, nonetheless is home to a bevy of interesting characters, most notably one wearing angel wings.   And Hans gets to see more real people that have been hidden from him his while life; And Hans never lets go of the connection to his wife and son; he spends most of the novel unsure of how even to approach reconciliation, but it remains a green light he can always see. 

Things Invisible to See - Nancy Willard

''We're losing. Can't you see? Do you think Gehrig and Waddell and McGinnity and Jennings couldn't hit if they wanted to? . . . They want the living to win. Even the umpire wants the living to win. They remember how it was. All the pain, all the trouble - they'd choose it again - they'd go extra innings into infinity for the chance to be alive again.''  


Plot:  Boy hits baseball, ball hits girl in head, causes her to become crippled.  Boy feels guilty (girl is unaware of who hit ball), visits girl, they fall in love.  Boy goes off to war.  Time passes.  Boy's ship is sunk, he is alone in Pacific on raft.  Death visits.  Makes deal.  Baseball game back home for soul vs. life.    


Why read it?:  I was a bit skimpy on the plot - this a fairly short book but full of life.  Magical realism meets sports novel.  There a few books that are able to bring in such various pieces and have them all work together.  Angels and God, weird families and their pets, baseball, small town America.  A unique book.


I read this book as a graduate student in Virginia back when it first came out in the 1980's (I searched around for a photo of the cover from the edition I had.  I'm sadly not sure what happened to my copy).  I had assumed it was long out of print, which apparently it was for many years, but now it has been reprinted.  I don't think it was a particularly big seller and isn't likely become one now, but it is an inspired piece of mystical writing about baseball, love, fate, and faith.


This all takes place around WWII.  The hero, Ben, playing with friends one evening, hits a baseball that travels beyond the playing field and hits a young girl, Clare in the head, leaving her unable to walk.  Clare is unaware of who hit her with the ball, Ben is not.  Despite being advised against it by his morally challenged brother Willie, Ben strikes up a friendship with Clare out of guilt, and the two eventually fall in love.  There's a lot more going on here - Ben's relationship with his twin brother, which dates back to before they were born, as well as Clare's eccentric family and her ability to see the future in a hazy sort of way.


The book then quickly shifts forward to a raft floating somewhere in the Pacific during the war.  Ben's Navy ship has sank, and he is the lone survivor, adrift with no food or water. He is not, however, alone on the raft.  Death is with him, and Death, not adverse to wagers, agrees to a baseball game with Ben and his friends back home.  What ensues is literally a baseball game for the ages, and for life.  Its hard to not compare this to Field of Dreams, but I won't, other than to say that there are some similarities, but mainly on the surface.  Things Invisible to See is magical realism mixed with  middle America at its most conventional.  The ending is truly original and reminds us that sometimes the best things are just meant to happen and nothing can get in the way of that.

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

“A letter doesn't communicate by words alone. A letter, just like a book, can be read by smelling it, touching it and fondling it. Thereby, intelligent folk will say, 'Go on then, read what the letter tells you!' whereas the dull-witted will say, 'Go on then, read what he's written!”  

Plot:  16th Century Istanbul - an illustrator working on a secret book for the Sultan is murdered.  The book will use European style art techniques, which are considered blasphemy in the Muslim world. Black, who has just returned from several years abroad, is asked to investigate the killing.  Black hopes to use the investigation to rekindle a romance with his old love.  The book touches on the nature of art and the influence of the West that was just beginning at the time of the story. 

Why read it?: They mystery part may appeal to some, I wasn't that impressed with that part.  But the details and ideas of how art may be viewed, and the uses art has in our lives is fascinating, along with a vivid description of life in that part of the world.  The way in which cultures intersect and meld is obviously still relevant today, just as it was then.

One of my daughters bought me this for Christmas, it was one of several books by middle Eastern of Islamic writers she gave me.  Interestingly enough I had recently finished another book by Pamuk, Snow, which I had found very compelling.  This is a hard to categorize book - several people compare it to The Name of the Rose, which I suppose is accurate.  A historical mystery, focusing on a period of great change in society.  The whodunit part of My  Name is Red did not excite me much;  the plot narrows things down to three suspects early on, and I found them all pretty interchangeable and not particularly well defined.  That is most likely due to my unfamiliarity with the culture, but it wasn't that important to me anyways.  I found musings on art and culture and religion to be amazing, even as they go on and on for chapter after chapter. 

My Name is Red takes place in late 16th century Istanbul; contact with the western world is beginning to be more common.  The book deals with the effects of that contact, mostly through art, but the effects carry over to other aspects of life as well.  There are obvious parallels to current day events and issues (the lack of understanding of different cultures is through an Islamic viewpoint here).  An illustrator, working for the Sultan on a book that will show the glories of his kingdom, is murdered.  Suspicion falls on 3 of his fellow artists who are also working on the book.  While such books were routinely done, this book is special; rather than being done in the traditional Islamic style, which is very stylized and basically consists of reproducing figures done centuries ago by the acknowledged masters of they style, the illustrations in this book are to be done in the European style, which aims for realism and shows individual detail.  To many, this is blasphemy.

Black, who once trained to be a miniaturist with the suspects in the murder, arrives back in Istanbul after many years away.  He is pressed into service as a detective by his uncle, who is overseeing the book's development.  Black once hoped to marry his uncle's daughter, Shekure, when they were younger, but she ended up being married to another and now has two young sons.  Her husband however, is presumed dead in battle.  Black is still in love with Shekure and sees this job as a way of getting back into her life.

A big part of the charm of this book is the style.  There are a multitude of characters who get a chance to tell their story.  Chapter 1 is I am a Corpse, and is narrated by the murder victim. The murderer (I will be Called a Murderer), a dog, a tree, a coin, even a color, hence the book title, all get their own stories and have the chance to express their ideas of art, what it means, what it should be and what is should depict.  I will admit to getting lost at times in trying to figure out what exactly is going on or what point someone is making, but I got enough of it.  In particular, I was fascinated by the details of how books of the time moved around, being given as gifts, or won in battles, and how the books were then redone to fit its new owner.  Whether this explains the development of Islamic artwork, or whether Islamic artwork influenced political life in the region, I'm not sure. 

The love story between Black and Shekure is worth the read as well.  Both have their own ideas and goals, and aren't hesitant to manipulate things, including each other, to get what they want.  Early on, Black seems a bit bumbling and too overwhelmed with his desire to win Shekure, but he proves to be a bit more wily than he lets on.  Given that he needs to solve a murder to save his own skin, win over and marry Shekure,  and fend off a determined and not very nice rival suitor, all in a few days, Black eventually proves to be up to the task. 

English Passengers – Mathew Kneale

 

"Strange articles of passengers they were, too. Truly, you never did see such a clever and pestful trio as these, all disagreeing with themselves and taking their great clever brains for a little stroll about the deck. I dare say it was hardly a surprise they were odds, mind, seeing as their quest was to discover themselves the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden! As if it couldn't just be left in the Bible where it belonged. They weren't even looking to find it in any sensible spot, but on some rotten island at the very ends of the earth, called Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, as it couldn't make up its mind. This was a mad fool of a place, by the sounds Of it, all gaols and bluemen and worse, being nowhere any sensible fellow would venture near. It was there, and all the way back, too, that we were supposed to be carrying the three snots. A whole year of Englishmen. What a thought that was. It was bad enough just taking them along the coast to Maldon."


Plot: A Manx ship trading in French contraband is caught by the British.  While in port, the crew finds a quick escape by agreeing to transport a Vicar and his group to Tasmania to search for the Garden of Eden.  Although having no intention of living up to their part of the bargain, the ship's crew is forced to do so.  Once in Tasmania, they met up with Peevay, the last aborigine survivor, who becomes their land guide.  Peevay's (and the other aborigines') tragic story is also told in alternating chapters.


Why read it?:  This is a very funny story, albeit mixed in with a lot of horror and tragedy - this is the destruction of an entire group of people, after all.  While the humor provides some relief, this is a serious book and takes sharp aim at several groups of people who think they know better than others, but obviously don't. (A common refrain in our history).  And it is a great way to learn some of the history of Tasmania.


A book that rapidly alternates between moments of slapstick humor and enormous tragedy on a grand scale, English Passengers, a book I read years ago, still clearly sticks with me to this day.  Ostensibly, this story revolves around the destruction of Tasmania’s aborigine population in the 19^th century.  This is viewed through the eyes of one of the last aborigines alive named Peevay (whose white father comes to Tasmania to serve a prison sentence and rapes Peevay’s mother) who we first meet as a young boy, living with the quickly diminishing local population as the Europeans overtake their land.  Their destruction is slow; little by little they lose the lands they have long occupied and are forced to change the lifestyles they have always known.  Much of the early parts of the book are a beautiful (and sometimes horrible) passages of aborigine life, and its slow intersection with the Briitsh. By the time Peevay is an adult, he is a hardened soul, and mostly alone.  It is then that he meets the rest of the cast of this story, who come aboard the ship Serenity, manned by a Manx crew. None of the crew, nor the Captain of the ship, want to be in Tasmania, but circumstances have caused them to be here.  How the Serenity ends up in Tasmania is the subject of much of the first half of the book.  Initially, the crew the Serenity are looking to smuggle French goods (liquor, smokes and porn) into England.  When caught by the authorities, they manage to make a run for it by getting hired to take a Vicar to Tasmania, where he believes the Garden of Eden is to be found and can ultimately be used to disprove evolution.  Along with the Vicar is a nasty piece of humanity named Dr Potter, who secretly has his own research to do on the trip, namely to find “specimens” to prove his theories on race (a similar plan in included in Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish).  The Serenity’s Captain Kewley takes a dim view of these men (and the British in general), but sees them as his only hope to escape the law. Unfortunately for Kewley, his luck is generally terrible and always ill-timed (he explains early on that it runs in the family), and despite his best intentions, his ship does make it to Tasmania, but only after a series of comic adventures at sea; coincidence is rarely your friend .

The second half of the novel takes place on land in Tasmania.  Peevay is hired as a guide for the Vicar and Dr Potter.  He is alternately bemused and disgusted by these men.  Soon after, the Vicar is losing his sanity, Dr Potter is taking charge and the whole expedition is on the verge of collapse.

The conclusion is in itself a grand spectacle (with a big helping of irony), with everyone getting pretty much what they deserve; except Peevay, of course, who has witnessed his entire way of life destroyed and left with nowhere to go.