Scene - Blogs - Netherland finally wins something

Netherland finally wins something
Published: 2/28/2009 1:38 PM
Last Modified: 2/28/2009 1:38 PM

After coming up short in the competitions for the National Book Award and Great Britain's Man Booker Prize, Joseph O'Neill's "Netherland" won the PEN/Faulkner Award this week.

ABout time, too, since "Netherland" is one of 2008's best novels, one of those rare books that, as you read it, you know you are reading something that will likely endure.

I know my immediate superiors are engrossed in the book -- one recently opined that how not being able to read the book because of things like putting out a newspaper kept getting in the way made him "angry."

We said in our review that it is one of the few novels that routine get compared to "The Great Gatsby" that actually stands up to the comparison. It has that same elegiac tone, that same aura of an outsider looking at people and a landscape that should be familiar but are disconcertingly, achingly strange, about finding a sense of purpose amid tragedies great and small, and how some seemingly bizarre activity -- for example, playing the very English game of cricket in the wilds of New York City -- can help re-establish some kind of spiritual order.

The paperback version won't be out until June, but this is a novel you might want to preserve, so spring for the hardback.

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SoonerChris (4 years ago)

I think I will have to do that!

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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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Past Articles By James D. Watts Jr

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2/14/2013		Symphony to host piano soloist
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2/14/2013		'Lion King' returns to Tulsa PAC June 4
2/12/2013		Review: Signature Symphony reprises '100 Years of Oklahoma Music'
2/11/2013		Tulsa Symphony's concert salutes diverse American music
2/10/2013		Cherokee artist weaves messages into baskets
2/10/2013		Tesla Quartet set for Tulsa residency next week with variety of activities
2/10/2013		Jim Murphy wins 2013 Anne Zarrow Award
2/10/2013		LBJ chronicler Robert Caro to speak at TU on Tuesday
2/9/2013		Theater review: Playhouse makes "Barefoot in the Park" believable

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