Netherland | Litsy

pick

When I was in the pub on Monday my second pint found me starting this interesting story of Hans, a Dutch advisor to finance whose marriage collapses immediately after 9/11. His life in New York is rescued by the discovery of cricket played on overgrown pitches across the city. He recounts the meetings with diverse characters while he tries to journey back to normality and finding himself as a father/husband.

TrishB Great review 👍🏻 1y

CarolynM Excellent review. I liked this book a lot. 1y

Cathythoughts Great review, I must investigate this one 👍🏻 1y

62 likes3 comments

CarolynM

Netherland: A Novel | Joseph O'Neill

#12booksof2021 #3rdbookof2021 #March

My only reason for reading this book was to tick off a prompt on the #Booked2021 reading challenge but it turned out to be a little gem - a beautifully written meditation on immigrant identity in post 9/11 NYC. And cricket.
@Andrew65

Andrew65 Love it when that happens. 3y

Andrew65 Best not mention cricket 🙈 We have a team that can‘t bat for love nor money! Never known a weaker batting line up. 3y

Leftcoastzen I read it when it first came out , I remember liking it a lot. 3y

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CarolynM @Andrew65 Oh well, I've been enjoying it 😆 Seriously, though, it's a big ask for the English players given all the circumstances. Anderson bowled beautifully yesterday. 3y

Andrew65 @CarolynM How he keeps doing it at his age I will never know. Some rank bad decisions - fancy leaving him and Broad both out of the first game. Not that it would matter as Australia are the clear better team, much stronger batting unit. Even without a pandemic batting has become an increasing issue in recent years. Think coach needs to go. 3y

CarolynM @Andrew65 At the risk of rubbing salt into the wound, England's fielding helped some of those scores. 3y

Andrew65 @CarolynM Yes and absolutely no excuse for that, they are usually a strong fielding team. To be honest never been convinced Joe Root is a good captain, a great batsman but does even then get out too often once he gets over 50. 3y

Andrew65 @CarolynM Now 46/5, embarrassing! 3y

CarolynM @Andrew65 It was a good ball that got Stokes 3y

Andrew65 @CarolynM To be fair it was, been a lot of good balls in the series. 3y

64 likes10 comments

CarolynM

Netherland: A Novel | Joseph O'Neill

pick

Looking for a book #RelatedTo911 for #Booked2021 I came across an intriguing review for this novel. How could I resist a story that takes in the cricket subculture in New York City? And I'm so glad I didn't resist. It is superbly well written. The passages about the aftermath of the attacks are strikingly evocative and the dual strands of the story were always interesting. I enjoyed all the cricket references too.