Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill

I bought the book Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill, ages ago when I was still living in Cardiff, around 2010, but somehow I never got around to reading it until now. It’s an intriguing book, written by an Irishman about a Dutchman who spends his life between London and New York, and who loves cricket. I don’t know why I put off reading it for so long, but I definitely recommend it. It’s full of vivid descriptions of places and acutely observed people. The jacket blurb for this novel does give the impression that it is some sort of murder mystery involved, and it the story is in a sense stimulated by the discovery of the body in a New York canal found with its hands tied behind its back. This event provokes the narrator and principal protagonist, Hans van den Broek, to reflect on the time he spent in New York in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The man in the canal was Chuck Ramkissoon, a larger-than-life self-styled “businessman” who had befriended Hans in those days. They…