The City Invincible is many things.
It 's a great Italian title for a book about New York instead of the more cryptic Netherland the original version. And 'one of the best novels about the post-September 11. And 'one of those rare books that tells the story of cricket. It 's the good work of the third Joseph O'Neill. E ', last but not least , one of the favorite books of Barack Obama, whose "presidential review" on New York Times Magazine has greatly contributed to the fame of the author.
The protagonist of the story is the financial analyst Hans Van der Boek, Dutch (as were the Dutch founders of New Amsterdam, the old New York City) married Rachel all'avvocatessa English. The Towers tragedy shakes not only the city but also their marriage and Hans in the end he just, he moved into the glorious Chelsea Hotel and runs for its namesake neighborhood (with detours to Brooklyn and Queens), one of the most seductive of city, with its old style buildings, small shops and the many dogs on a leash . "And I started in my second spring in Chelsea, to feel the desire to go wandering through my neighborhood, where every morning the sun stood out on the headquarters of the 6th Avenue so dazzling as to force him to drop his eyes and scans the sidewalk, also as scattered grains of sand, dotted with bright shiny discs chewing flattened gum.
inevitably makes new acquaintances, flirt a bit ', he meets characters more or less fanciful: a turkish going around with two wings, an eccentric artist, an odd widow. But the most extraordinary character is Chuck Ramkisson, mysterious businessman from Trinidad, who introduces Hans in the world of cricket, game tied to his childhood and the mysterious and ancient sport, where games can last even days, with stops for lunches and snacks for us and that is only a relative secular aristocratic baseball.
Chuck the motto "Think Fantastic" , is the mentor of the new Hans finds himself the only white man in the world of New York cricket, with the enthusiasm within himself the "American Dream "never vanished and told in first person with a fine exercise in memory and temporal levels through meetings, stories minimum (and maximum) of racial integration.
Melancholy and irony, bitterness and hope, are all elements of a choir that sings a love song to New York, the true protagonist of the book di O’Neill e collante di tutto il romanzo, scenario perfetto per la storia di un uomo che, come la città dove vive, vuole portare in salvo il suo futuro.
La Città Invincibile
, Joseph O'Neill, Rizzoli Superpocket, 2010 
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