52 Books in 52 Weeks, it's called. The challenge is simple: read a book every week for a year.
50. Netherland.
I’m not sure how this caught my eye, or where I noted that the President is (was?) reading it, but somehow it got into my cue. I’m so glad. It’s not a page-turner; it’s not exciting or flashy. But the considered and slightly off center meditation on the disintegrated and re-integrated marriage of Dutch ex-patriot Hans (ex- of London but living in New York) to Rachel, in the wake of 9/11, and of Hans’s subsequent involvement with dreamer, entrepreneur, opportunist (slightly-seedy) Chuck Ramkissoon (ex- of Trinidad) and Chuck’s impossible dream of a New York Cricket Stadium, is one of the best written novels I’ve recently read. O’Neill is absolutely in love with and in command of the language, and he has that other rare quality that makes the best writing: the observant eye and the observant heart and the skill to articulate what he sees and what he discerns. Really amazing — I’m amazed.
