The best ever cricket book, that I’ve read anyway
Let me recommend a book for you – Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.
Netherland is a story of dislocation, or ‘distractedness’, due to post-9/11 trauma, loss of love and alienation, and rediscovery through cricket. Dutchman Hans van den Broek finds himself living alone in New York after his British wife leaves him and returns to New York. He drifts in a disaffection until he discovers the local cricket community and finds some sense of belonging and a connection to his younger life.
In New York, cricket takes on a uniquely American character. The grass is too rough to allow shots along the ground, necessitating baseball-like swings to the deep, the players are all immigrants, West Indians and east Indian largely, there is the risk that someone will pull a gun during a game and the future of the game is in the hands of a dodgy entrepreneur (Chuck Ramkissoon, Hans’ only real friend), with plans to build a cricket stadium in Brooklyn and get India and Pakistan to play there.
However, the ordered and dignified soul of the game of cricket still exists in New York, and through this Hans is able to pick up the pieces of his life.
It is a beautifully written book, deep and thoughtful, yet with a sparkling turn of phrase. Highly recommended.
(Having written all this and doing a quick Google to see what others are saying, I see that the book and its author have already been reviewed on Cricinfo.)
May 9th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I’ll keep my eye out for it.
May 10th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Have been toying with buying it but every time I pick it up in the shop I don’t for some reason. I will now. Have you read Adult Book by Malcolm Knox? That had cricket as a sub-plot and was nicely done.
June 1st, 2009 at 10:39 am
[...] of books, look who’s reading my favourite cricket book, Barak Obama. And he likes it “a lot” apparently. (While the previous president thought [...]
June 28th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
[...] Crucket calls it the best ever cricket book he has ever read. I don’t exactly agree, but let me say this: If you tore out all the pages not relating to cricket and made a book out of it, “Netherland” would indeed be one of the most well-written novels on cricket. The writing is excellent and the author is clearly knowledgeable about cricket. So the passages about cricket really light up the book. [...]