Just not cricket - Rated 
I was left distinctly underwhelmed by this book. I had seen good reviews, and being a cricket fan I thought this would be a book I would enjoy, but I have to say I struggled to get a handle on it.
The main characters are mainly unsympathetic, and I found it hard to care what happened to them - this may be a good thing though as absolutely nothing happened. Hans is essentially depressed and seems to take no interest in his life, while his wife Rachel seems pretty self-centred in her dealings with him. Other characters drift in and out with seemingly little contribution to what there is of the plot, and the only character with any interest - Chuck Ramkisson - ends up with no closure as it is not explained who killed him or why. There is no murder mystery here, despite what the blurb implies.
The sentence construction is over long, and the author tends to meander between time zones for pages at a time, leading you to have to turn back and find where he left off. However, O'Neill does have a good way with words and some parts are beautifully written. There are also sections where the story and the writing grip your attention; he clearly has a good level of knowledge, and love for, the subject matter and places he writes about, but this has the overall effect of making me frustrated that the whole book couldn't be like this.
The lack of plot and unsympathetic characters made me want to give this book one star; the excellent writing in parts made me want to give it three, and the overall frustration that this book could have been so much better led me to settle on two. There is a short interview at the end where O'Neill mentions that he re-wrote the second half of the first draft as he felt the book was "fatally undermined by a preoccupation with plot" - I think it would have been better for everyone concerned if he had sent that manuscript to the publisher's. It may not have been rejected so many times had he done so.
Not a lot happens, not even in the frequent flashbacks - Rated 
The hero is quite well off. Very well off in fact. He works for a merchant bank. He splits from his wife. She is also qite well off, being a lawyer. He get lonely and meets a chap in New York (where he live is a hotel becase he is well off)and falls into the cricket circle. Not a lot happens, but he jets in and out of England, where his wife stays with her well off parents and has fallen for a celebrity chef. There are a lot of flashbacks. The book ends with everyone being well off. Except the cricket chap who is dead and you never find out how or why.
Post-Bush openings - Rated 
This novel is very aspirational and draws you into its fine mesh of
observations and descriptions.After the Bush years O'Neill has picked up on the American appetite for new information and minority pursuits as in
cricket.Many Bangledeshis and SE Asians have come in great numbers to
America and along with West Indian immigrants have pursued cricket as a core activity to turn their outsiderdom into insiderdom for the newer immigrants.Obviously one of the entrepreneurs, Chuck Rampkissoon, is a very colourful enthusiast to make cricket a mainline sport.He draws the
narrator, Hans van den Broek, into this secret game played in scrubby, marginal urban parks.However Chuck,who uses Hans as a driver to help with
his numbers racket,is not what he seems.Hans,suffering a marriage breakdown following 9/11 gets drawn in out of curiosity and with time
on his hands.His wife and child return to London.I found the novel moved
around the 1st person narrator's memories of his Dutch childhood and youth and his travel to different places and cities interesting but the
storyline without a plot had no momentum and I gave up half way through
and picked it up again after several months had elapsed.Beautifully
written but with no shape or structure to galvanise the reader,the main
couple did not move me enough,there was nothing about them to emotionally
anchor you to the story,not even a murder that was raised as if to take
us into the plot and then dropped almost inconsequentially.A little more
Simenon and a little less Gide would have been my advice to make this into the truly memorable novel it could have been.Still worth a look.
All & Nothing - Rated
Just as cricket is impossible to explain to someone who has never played the game, Netherland has that same mysterious quality. It is a book about everything and nothing, about love and friendship, race and class, America before and after 9/11. It is a book to savor and perhaps on re-reading a book that would merit an extra star or two. It is a book for someone who has already lived a bit of life and can look back as well as forward.
it's not JUST cricket - Rated 
Netherland by Joseph O'Neil
I confess I read this book because I heard Obama was reading it. Little did I know I would be fascinated by this beautifully written novel about life, love, and, of all things...the game of cricket. O'Neil's brilliance is in his exquisite description of love and relationships. Using a game of cricket he describes what it is to truly "see" into the truth of a situation. He does this with a delicacy and intimacy that is tender and inspiring.
I am also inspired by Ariel and Shya Kanes brilliant works: Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment, How to Create a Magical Relationship: The 3 Simple Ideas that Will Instantaneously Transform Your Love Lifeand Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life. The Kane's are masters of seeing and sharing truth. For an enlightening read, O'Neill and the Kane's books are filled with radiance.
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