Amsterdam: A Novel [Paperback]

Ian McEwan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 2, 1999

On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a London crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence: Clive is Britain's most successful modern composer, and Vernon is editor of the newspaper The Judge. Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers, too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister.

In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact with consequences that neither could have foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits, and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life. A sharp contemporary morality tale, cleverly disguised as a comic novel, Amsterdam is "as sheerly enjoyable a book as one is likely to pick up this year" (The Washington Post Book World).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When good-time, fortysomething Molly Lane dies of an unspecified degenerative illness, her many friends and numerous lovers are led to think about their own mortality. Vernon Halliday, editor of the upmarket newspaper the Judge, persuades his old friend Clive Linley, a self-indulgent composer of some reputation, to enter into a euthanasia pact with him. Should either of them be stricken with such an illness, the other will bring about his death. From this point onward we are in little doubt as to Amsterdam's outcome--it's only a matter of who will kill whom. In the meantime, compromising photographs of Molly's most distinguished lover, foreign secretary Julian Garmony, have found their way into the hands of the press, and as rumors circulate he teeters on the edge of disgrace. However, this is McEwan, so it is no surprise to find that the rather unsavory Garmony comes out on top. Ian McEwan is master of the writer's craft, and while this is the sort of novel that wins prizes, his characters remain curiously soulless amidst the twists and turns of plot. --Lisa Jardine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As swift as a lethal bullet and as timely as current headlines, McEwan's Booker Prize-winning novel is a mordantly clever?but ultimately too clever for its own good?exploration of ethical issues. Two longtime friends meet at the cremation of the woman they shared, beautiful restaurant critic and photographer Molly Lane. Clive Linley, a celebrated composer, and Vernon Halliday, the editor of a financially troubled London tabloid, could never understand Molly's third liaison?with conservative Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, who is angling to be prime minister, or her marriage to dour but rich publisher George Lane. Mourning the manner of Molly's agonizing death, which left her mad and helpless at the end, each man pledges to dispatch the other by euthanasia should he be similarly afflicted. Immediately afterwards, both Clive and Vernon are enmeshed in a crisis: Clive must finish his commissioned Millennium Symphony so it can premiere in Amsterdam, and Vernon must grapple with the moral issue of publishing photos of Julian Garmony in drag that George has discovered with Molly's effects. The clash between whether the demands of pure art are more valid than political accountability and financial solvency soon assumes a larger dimension that turns Clive and Vernon into bitter enemies and inspires each of them to seek revenge by the same means. McEwan spins these plot developments with smooth alacrity and with acidulous wit, especially focused on the way shallow and mediocre people can occupy positions of power and esteem: "In his profession, Vernon was revered as a nonentity." His ability to sculpt a scene with such arresting visual detail that it assumes a physical dimension for the reader (most memorably in the opening of Enduring Love but also evident here as Clive observes a woman being accosted by a rapist, and as Vernon watches a TV interview that signals the end of his career) are undiminished. But when, in the last third of the book, McEwan manipulates the plot to achieve a less than credible symmetry, it is obvious that, despite the Booker recognition, this is far from McEwan's best novel. That said, however, it will undoubtedly hit the bestseller charts, for McEwan, even when not quite at the top of his form, is a writer of compelling gifts. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (November 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385494246
• ISBN-13: 978-0385494243
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (352 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author of short stories and novels for adults, as well as The Daydreamer, a children's novel illustrated by Anthony Browne. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His other award-winning novels are The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, and Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize.

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#98 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#98 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Compressed Quaility May 25, 2000

By Mr. Sm Fay

Format:Paperback

McEwan's booker prize-winning novel traces the consequencesof a Machiavellian attitude towards work. Clive Linly a composer withan established reputation and Vernon Hailliday, editor of the struggle daily paper, The Judge, renew their former friendship at the funeral of their former lover, the larger than life forty-something year old Molly Lane.

There they meet George Lane, Molly's husband and another former lover Julian Garmony, the Foreign Secretary, who's despised by Molly's former lovers.

The novel traces the lives of the four men after Molly's funeral when they all face pinnacle moments in both their private and professional lives.

Amsterdam is a book without heroes. The characters fail to grab your sympathy, but this adds to the reader's curiosity as you try to unravel their true worth and nature. It's not a book about how the strong and ruthless survive but rather how obsession with work can turn into self-obsession and ultimately destruction as the books characters take personal desire over public responsibility.

The book's 196 pages make it more of a novella than a novel and some would argue that more time should have been given over to plot and character development. However an expansion of the books length could have faltered the quick tempo, that McEwan's rich language lends to the book, and the vagueness of the characters leads us to question rather than condemn them at the end, allowing for the books effect to linger long after the final page has been read.

This books quality has been questioned in comparison to other Booker winners but Amsterdam, a book so rich in dramatic irony should be judged on its own merits. This socio-political satire manages to examine such a thorny issue as human morality in a humorous and entertaining fashion and is a recommended read.

70 of 79 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A literary chocolate eclair January 11, 2000

By Winter Wright

Format:Paperback

Ordinarily I find McEwan's work thrilling, but was disappointed by Amsterdam. Although the writing is masterly and the plot keeps you turning the pages, the story is insubstantial and ultimately unsatisfying.

Who knows why it won the Booker Prize? Surely The Comfort of Strangers or The Innocent deserved it more. Other reviewers have suggested variously that the committee felt guilty about ignoring McEwan's previous work, or because the book featured an interplay between theme and character brilliant enough to justify the award. I interpret that to mean that the judges thought it clever that the novel's characters were shallow, and that the newspaper Vernon Halliday edited was shallow, and that the symphony Clive Linley wrote was derivative and fatally unvaried, and that ultimately the book itself was shallow, too, and so decided Amsterdam was a brilliantly self-referential piece of---I don't know, meta-fiction or something.

Maybe so, but some of the social commentary in the book reads like a magazine article rather than a novel, like a 2,000-word piece in a weekend supplement, and I expect more from McEwan: strong characters and images and themes that resonate in your head like a fascinating bad dream.

Amsterdam is light entertainment, a finely written but forgettable tale by a brilliant author who's capable of producing much, much better work.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Consolation Booker to an Amazing Author November 19, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Ian McEwan is one of the more exciting authors writing in Britain today and his Booker Prize is well overdue. However, it is a shame he had to win it for what is by far his least accomplished novel.

Amsterdam concerns two friends who meet at the funeral of their former lover Molly Lane. One is a composer, trying to write the Millenium Symphony, whilst the other is a newspaper editor. Both enjoy great success and live the 'high life'. Upon seeing the undignified way in which their lover perished - after a long, debilitating, degenerative disease - they make a pact ensuring that each would end the other's life should it ever begin to slip away like Molly's did. A dignified death in a time where such deaths are few and far between.

Amsterdam is essentially a 'morality play' - at times funny, sad, and disturbing. It raises some complex issues, particularly the question of what it is that constitutes a life worth living. Unfortunately, however, it misses the mark, ending up shallow and lacking.

Kudos to Ian McEwan. He has finally won the coveted Booker. But how Amsterdam won when Black Dogs, The Comfort of Strangers and, most recently, Enduring Love (which wasn't even nominated) all failed is beyond me. I can't help but agree with the London Literati, who soon after the victory, labelled this one the Consolation Booker.

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Amsterdam November 19, 2002

By sweetmolly

Format:Paperback

Two old friends meet at the funeral of charismatic, gorgeous Molly Lane. The fortyish Ms. Lane has died despicably of some unnamed degenerative disease that cruelly turned her vegetative. Molly, who had been mistress to both friends, was married at the time of her death to an immensely wealthy unlikable man. Vernon and Clive reminisced over their old friend Molly and comforted themselves with the thought she had never even liked husband George, unworthy that he was. But the bleak circumstances of Molly's death disturb the old friends with thoughts of their own mortality and cause them to enter into a peculiar pact.

McEwan's skill and craftsmanship make Clive and Vernon's thoughts and actions familiar to us, and the prose sparkles. Yet both men seem tinder dry, unengaged and hollow. Neither seemed more than his professional success; Clive an international composer---Vernon, a noted newspaper editor. The friends have a bitter falling out, and the crux of the novel, whether their friendship will be strong enough to overcome their differences plays out like a Greek tragedy.

On the down side, I never cared enough about either man to be more than academically interested in their rise and fall. The small book (193 pages) almost demands to be read in one sitting, as it is one continuous arc. Mr. McEwan doesn't fail in giving us a story, very well told, but I wished the vibrant Molly had not died before the tale began.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer