Netherland

Joseph O'Neill, Netherland

Hailed as one of best books of the year in 2008, Netherland is a tale written by the Ireland born writer who, raised in Holland but now lives in New York City, infuses his personal experience into the character portrayed in his narrative. The story is about Chuck, the narrator, and his rediscovering of life, with the reminiscence of his childhood in Netherland and his time spent in England with his wife, while a greater part of the novel dwells on his own living in New York City, when his wife and son leave him for London after the 911 incident. Being left alone in a city where the apocalyptic uncertainty lingers, the protagonist shares no less the same suffering that overtakes the all New York residents.

The tale focuses largely on the relationship between the protagonist and a friend he meets in a cricket game in New York City. Chuck Ramkissoon, an optimist and a dreamer, is perhaps Hans’ only friend during his lonely exile in the city, where he strives hard to reinvent the purpose of life. Chuck introduces to Hans, as well as the readers, an underside of the city, where countless of minority groups fights for their own existence and living. Chuck’s dream of establishing a standard cricket field in the city where the sport is not acknowledged offers a prototype for all the American dreams that are yet to be realized. Even though Chuck’s dream in the end comes to a tragic halt, his ambition revives much of the same spirit in the protagonist.

Netherland is a post-colonial novel, in which all the characters are under the influence of diaspora. Han’s constant remembering of his childhood past is his greatest comfort among all the misadventures in America. The cricket game that Hans and the immigrants take to heart so dearly is their final and perhaps only grasp to their lost past. It is always difficult to adapt, once you leave your hometown. During the process, some fail to get used to the new land, while still others perseverate; however, the bottom line is that most live the same way as they did. Those who stay have never accomplished in adapting to the new culture; they just do better in establishing their old life in the new place.

Even though O’Neill combines in his novel a large variety of urban experiences and, at the same time, gives much different perspectives in life, the work overall tends to get too ponderous as we slowly follow through. The usage of cricket as the symbolic idea throughout the novel arouses little interest from the readers, who are neither familiar with the sport nor care much about its going-ons. Netherland, successful perhaps in its reestablishment of the little known, beyond surface city life, is a work that does not necessarily appeal to all readers. For those who want to explore similar subjects, it is better to start with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a classic that is comparatively more accessible, more profound, and at the same time, a lot shorter.

The White Castle

Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle

From Nobel Laurite Orhan Pamuk comes a tale about the quest for the meaning of human existence. The White Castle, the first English translation from the Turkish writer, symbolizes the human search to the unattainable truth. The story is about a young Italian scholar, after being captivated by Turkish vessel, becomes a slave to a man who bears a shocking resemblance to himself in appearance. As the years go by, they become more alike, until the line between the two individuals begins to blur. In his working of this short but nonetheless profound, imaginative tale, Pamuk delves into the issue of self-examination and explores the more philosophical question on the formation of identity.

“Why am I the way I am” is central to many philosophical thinking; it is also the utmost question that drives the characters in The White Castle to their self-searching experiences. In the formation of the self and its identity, one inevitably comes across the recognition of the “mirror stage”, from which the basic self-awareness and the prototype of an identity is built on. The novel then features a scene, in which the protagonist and the antagonist both stand in front of the mirror half naked, gazing at the two reflections of the two “I”s. Being essential to the recognition of the self, the scene sets for the two characters a foundation to a shared identity.

Moving on further, Pamuk shows that, besides the indispensible mirror stage, the formation of a self and its identity requires also social experiences, for identity is often socially constructed. What ultimately makes the two characters identical is their acquirement and adaptation of each other’s social experience. As the years go by, each knows better the other’s background; therefore, it is with no difficulty that the two become interchangeable.

The sovereign once asked the protagonist, “must one be a sultan to understand that men, in the four corners and seven climes of the world, all resembled one another?” and “was it not the best proof that men everywhere were identical with one another that they could take each other’s place?”(The White Castle, 136). Identity is fluid, as the novel exemplifies. In order to know oneself, as the protagonist suggests later, one should look “outside” instead of "inside", since mostly the outside determines what we are, and because we are more often what we are as socially recognized. Ultimately, it is what surrounds a person that make up the identity in question, and that we are all build by tiny bits of facts, and likely they are all transient.

Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy is an American writer who has received much attention from the public in these recent years, one because of the Oscar-winning novel adaptation by the Coen brothers, No Country for Old Man, the other for McCarthy's most recent comeback work The Road, which has been selected by the Opera Book Club and received many awards. Cormac is known for his treatment of borderline issue and violence that often embodies his work. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, regarded by some critics as his masterpiece, is yet another novel from McCarthy that deals with the similar themes. The plotless novel, which abounds highly in obscure literary allusions, American-Mexican warring history, jargons and even un-translated Spanish, is a great challenge for any reader who does not have enough background knowledge and whose patience cannot outlast the constant frustration in the reading experience.

The difficulty in understanding the text lies mostly in its language, rather than its allusions and backgrounds, for, even though both are complex and challenging, they do not barricade readers in the understanding the tale. It is McCarthy’s meticulous and often archaic word choice, together with the dialectical, sometimes foreign usage in language, that make Blood Meridian a difficult read. There are often passages that one cannot understand without referring constantly to the dictionary, not to mention the Spanish that is repeatedly used by the characters. The literary allusions from Bible, Paradise Lost, Moby-Dick, and possibly other works, once acknowledged, only help in the appreciation of the novel, as the warring history does.

Another major fact that might dissuade the reader from reading is the seemingly lack of plot in McCarthy’s narration. The violent plot tends to get repetitive at some point, and the barren landscape for some might only serves as an irony to the plot, as the party goes from one killing to another. The narrator introduces the reader all kinds of brutal ways in the killing of mankind but never goes into detail, which prevents the feeling of compassion and numbs the reader even before halfway through.

Difficult as it is, one cannot disregard the importance of Blood Meridian and McCarthy’s success in American and world literature simply because one fails to recognize it. Selected by Time magazine as one of the most important novels in American literature, Blood Meridian is a challenge for all readers, no matter because of its content or techniques. It is a book worthy of a second and even a third-try; even though not very likely in any time soon, for those who just have their first failure may really want to escape a bit form this nightmarish experience and come back a while later. Meanwhile, maybe one can relax a bit and try the previous movie adaptation or, better then, The Road starring Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen that will hit the local cinema later this year.

Note: I lost track of the plot and decided to give up reading the novel at page 198, just half way through it. The interpretation on the allusions I learned from a live recording lecture from Yale by Professor Amy Hungerford, the links listed as below.

Lecture 1 http://academicearth.org/lectures/cormac-mccarth-blood-meridian-1

Lecture 2 http://academicearth.org/lectures/cormac-mccarth-blood-meridian-2

Everyman

Philip Roth, Everyman

Everyman is American writer Philip Roth’s 2007 and latest work, the title of which borrowed from a well-known medieval morality play that stages the pilgrimage of a Christian soul through life to death. Roth casts away its strong religion influence and reinterprets the inevitable issue of life and death through a contemporary, everyday individual. The omniscient point of view reveals the later life of a common old man, who, after several unsuccessful marriages, finds himself facing with the deterioration in bodily health as he gets older. With much reminiscence of the past, Everyman takes the reader on a journey to the haunting experience of old age and death through the tale of the unnamed protagonist.

Roth vividly captures the desperation and helplessness of man when forced to face the unknown but surely approaching death. The protagonist, having a keen awareness about death, suffers even in his youth the dread towards the oblivion end. While he finds easy distraction in his youth, the ominous inevitable comes eventually back to him as he grows into older age. This is a fight between one’s willing spirit and the dying flesh, to which the will always yields in the end. For humans” […are] born to live and die on terms decided by the bodies that had lived and died before us” (Everyman, 51).

Hopefully, before one manages to face it alone, one still has people and memories for consolation. As the flesh drags our consciousness, no matter how unwillingly, to the final end, at least there exists something that we can attach ourselves to. For the protagonist, it is his parents’ warm comfort the night before his hernia surgery as a little boy; his memories of sitting in his father’s jewelry store; or perhaps his daughter, the only person who cares about him. It is cruelty to experience the final steps, as we see how the protagonist’s mind always tries to find shelter in his childhood memory, when the surgeries again and again cut open his failing flesh as it undergoes numerous surgeries.

With a simple tale, Roth masterfully portrays all men’s struggle in this less than 200 pages novel. He effortlessly treats such grave subject with much ease, wisdom and elegance. Everyman, like the name suggests, is a miniature of every single human being, an insightful interpretation of an issue that all is bound to face. Surely there are all kinds of different perspectives in facing death, like those taken by other characters. However, whichever attitude we should choose to take, we are all bound to the same end. Eventually, we should all be able to accept it like the protagonist; his philosophy resonates in mind: “Just take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes. There’s no other way”(79).

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s first and only novel, a much praised work that was published one year before her early death in 1848, at the age of 30. It is difficult not to compare it with the work of her older sister Charlotte Bronte, whose Jane Eyre also receives great critical acclaim in literary history. Though the two sisters share similar personal background, their respective work differs greatly in tone, perspective and settings, and while both works center on love, thematically each heads towards a different direction. The juxtaposition of the two shows Jane Eyre a gothic love fantasy, whose rather melodramatic plot, though greatly touches readers, reflects little realistic aspects, while Wuthering Heights, through its lengthy family history, gives a realistic portrayal of the human nature in its shortcomings and complexities.

This novel, divided into two parts, reveals most of its plot in the first section "1801", in which the narrator, Mr. Lockwood, is told the history of the Earnshaw and Linton family, and the unresolved love between Heathcliff and Catherine, while the second section "1802", draws the tale to the end with Mr. Heathcliff’s earnest confession and his death. The second part of the tale, short as it is, lifts up the tale to a wholly different level with Mr. Heathcliff’s self-disclosure, as he discovers that hatred has numbed him of any possible joy and therefore resolves, in the end, to abandon his grudge. The tale would be rendered into nothing but a cruel and heartless story had it been made up of only the first part, in which only the sinister part of Mr. Heathcliff is revealed.

The perspective Bronte takes helps the tale in securing a reliable account; however, the overall plot tends to be too lengthy in its development. The history of the two families is told through an effective third hand account, so that readers can, without any previously established perception, establish for themselves each character and their doings through their own understanding. The family tree revealed at the very beginning of the novel already gives the reader a clear picture of the family history, without even the narrator’s further explanation; therefore, the over-long plot only bores the readers along the way, where little surprise ensues. Consequently, the novel tends to be at times so tedious that one feels the years slowly passing and therefore endures much, as the characters do, while reading along.

Even though the story might be way too tedious on its revelation for some modern readers, Bronte’s success in Wuthering Heights lies in her honest construction of human nature, with a stress on the apt to contradictories. It tells of one man’s revenge against the people and fate that previously wrongs him, and through which, Bronte shows the reader the ineffectiveness of revenge one may take on. As in the case of the victim-turned-villain Mr. Heathcliff, the decades spent on the scheming and planning of his revenge, in the end, brings him no relief. The grudge that one holds eventually results in no satisfaction, and whatever is lost remains the case. It is all better to let go, for in order to absolve oneself from the earthly burden, sooner or later, one is bound to do so.