You decide the topic - Essay Example

10 November Netherland This is a book written by Joseph O Neil in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the USA. In the novel the protagonist is a big fan of the sport Cricket. The writer displays extreme subtlety and elegance in showcasing a story, which is dependent and based on the September 11 attacks. This novel shows how an individual uses sport as a mechanism to build relations and make friendship with the locals of the country. The protagonist Hans Van Den Broek is an immigrant who has come from Netherland to stay in the city of New York.

To start with, he did not have any friends who could go out and chill with him. However, later he took on the membership of this Cricket club known as Staten Island Cricket Club. The protagonist resides in the area of Manhattan with his wife and one child. At the beginning it was difficult for the man from Netherland to make any friends as all the people he could come around and meet up with had bust prior engagements and he was not able to connect or fill in with the people of the United States of America.

He tried hard to get his drivers license that was an important part of his intermingling with the American people. He ultimately uses sport as a medium for intermingling with the people of the country. This has been the most important part of the book and the following part of the essay shall dwell into how a sport can help in eradicating politics and making friends with strangers.“The book’s second story line, and perhaps its more resonant one, is about the solace Hans finds in the vibrant subculture of cricket in New York, where he is among the few white men to be found on the hundreds of largely West Indian teams in the city, teams that fan out, in the hazy summertime, across scrabby, lesser-known public parks.

”Apart from depicting the role of cricket in making friendship ties, the book focuses on the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the emotional burnout faced by the protagonist and his family, those who feared for their lives and those who thought that America is no longer a safe heaven as they once thought it was to be.In my opinion, the writer of the book has displayed impeccable tenacity by displaying two different situations and then bringing them together by a common thread with respect to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the USA.

The book is a masterpiece in the way it connects a sport to the politics of the country along with showcasing the emotional side of the person who, at the outset was a foreigner in the country, but was not treated like one by the member of the Cricket club where he made friends. The book also shows the power sports has to bring people together in spite of all the political trifles going around at that time. The 9/11 attacks was not a small deal and in the writers opinion the book has dealt with the emotional subject of the attacks in a very smooth, friendly and beautiful manner.

Work CitedGarner, Dwight. "The Ashes." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 May 2008. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/books/review/Garner-t.html?pagewanted=allNetherland." By Joseph ONeill. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. .