In conversation with the American Dream.

There's a sense of satisfaction in discovering a book that you feel is good enough to recommend to good friends. Somehow though, there is more pleasure in being on the receiving end of a good suggestion from a good friend. This was the case recently spending some time in the company of Joseph O'Neill's writing and his first novel Netherland. Just reading it would have been enough, but since plenty of others seemed to enjoy this, there was plenty with which to follow-up once the covers of the book had been closed. Normal searches in the normal places bring up interviews with the author, which in turn shed light on some interesting detail about the book and the author. Among these, discovering that it had been seven years in the writing made me want to go back and read it a bit more slowly; it seems rather insulting to that effort to have read it in just two sittings.

Although a bit late in coming to it, among my regular listening subscriptions I found a look at the book in Slate magazine's Audio Book Club. I enjoy this show's format, with three people in informal discussion. I know that somewhere in there will be comments that fit with mine and others that won't; either way it forces me to consider my own thoughts and opinions. With the book drawing comment that it was "in conversation with" Gatsby--from its author and others--I'd decided to go back and re-read the high school standard. Happy, then, to find that the good people at Slate had had exactly the same idea and had that up for discussion as well short while after.