Amsterdam

By Ian McEwan

A National and International Bestseller
Winner of the 1998 Booker Prize for Fiction
A Globe and Mail Notable Book of 1998

On a chilly February day two old friends meet in the throng outside a 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 as Britain's most successful modern composer, Vernon as editor of the broadsheet The Judge. But gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers too, notably Julian Garmony, the Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger poised to be the next prime minister. What happens in the aftermath of her funeral has a profound and shocking effect on all her lovers' lives, and erupts in the most purely enjoyable fiction Ian McEwan has ever written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307366986

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan (Aldershot, Reino Unido, 1948) se licenció en Literatura Inglesa en la Universidad de Sussex y es uno de los miembros más destacados de su muy brillante generación. En Anagrama se han publicado sus dos libros de relatos, Primer amor, últimos ritos (Premio Somerset Maugham) y Entre las sábanas, las novelas El placer del viajero, Niños en el tiempo (Premio Whitbread y Premio Fémina), El inocente, Los perros negros, Amor perdurable, Amsterdam (Premio Booker), Expiación (que ha obtenido, entre otros premios, el WH Smith Literary Award, el People’s Booker y el Commonwealth Eurasia), Sábado (Premio James Tait Black), En las nubes, Chesil Beach (National Book Award), Solar (Premio Wodehouse), Operación Dulce, La ley del menor, Cáscara de nuez, Máquinas como yo, La cucaracha y Lecciones y el breve ensayo El espacio de la imaginación. McEwan ha sido galardonado con el Premio Shakespeare. Foto © Maria Teresa Slanzi.

Reviews for Amsterdam

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An unusual story of unsympathetic characters in an unlikely storyline, but is quite satisfying nonetheless.

[lovinglit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was exciting and engaging and wonderfully descriptive almost all the way through. It was the ending that let it down. It was rushed and worse than that....I saw it coming thanks to the image on the cover of my edition. If the ending had been written longer, with more feeling, I could have really loved this book. It describes the friendship of two well-to-do London men. Both in high positions in their fields, and both formerly in love with a recently deceased woman. The two men both find themselves with a moral dilema and can only pick fault with the way the other friend acted. Their bitterness an anger with each other reaches fairly high stakes and the high drama takes place in the Amsterdam of the title.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For 193 pages, this book packs a lot in. There are ebbs and flows of old friendships, division and rapprochement, political intrigue, transvestitism, muckraking journalism, and the composition of a symphony.

The latter passages are where McEwan's literary talents are most evident; his rapturous descriptions of the labor poured into the development of that symphony are practically musical themselves.

Unfortunately, I found the ending -- the dénouement in the titular city -- to be facile and disappointing. Not my favorite work by this author, but, to be fair, even his lesser works contain moments of literary crescendo.

[snash_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A tightly woven novel; a couple of selfish decisions spiral into disaster.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really do enjoy the writing style of this author. I find it to be witty with a sarcastic sense of humor. However, I have a hard time getting past the sad outlook on life that the author maintains. He seems to have the ability to show the worst in people and by ending the story with a double-murder, he confirms his own negative beliefs. This was a very short novel, and I would have liked it better if he had taken more time to explore the world of the two main characters. With all of that said, I would read more from this author.

[stef7sa-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story that develops like clockwork written in an impeccable style, funny with several surprise turns. The end is somewhat disappointing at first but then the aftermath takes you by surprise again. Great read.

[mariannehusbands · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I read this book on a Sunday afternoon in utter bliss by a roaring fire under my fur throw. I have been wanting to read Ian McEwan for a while and the marketing people did a good job on me with this one. I was drawn in by the eerily atmospheric front cover of duelling men from a bygone age and the flyleaf tempter of the story to come - a racy woman with several lovers and a funeral - perfect for this racy woman and the month of death and decay. It's a short novel so time investment is minimal and I am glad of that as for a Sunday afternoon piece of light entertainment it did a job. However, somehow I felt a little short-changed by the whole thing considering I am after all reading a Booker prize winner. There was no gasp or moment of revelation for me - knowing what we know of the world and how it works in the media and politics these days nothing came as a surprise - maybe we were a little more naive back in the late 90's about such things when the book was written. The motivation for the two main protagonists Clive and Vernon in bringing the novel to it's climax was for me far-fetched and pretty thin. Certainly a scathing commentary on the viler aspects of human nature that live within each of us during our working lives but at the end of the day - we already know that politicians and the press are a back-stabbing loathsome bunch and that the middle and so called upper middle classes of society are so full of themselves and their own importance that to them anything outside of their sphere of mememe world is irrelevant - so nothing new here and not tackled in this novel in anyway that shakes my perspective on the way it is. That said there were passages in the book which resonated with me and I wanted to carry on reading so in that it did the job of entertaining me for a while although I doubt I will be giving it much after thought as I have done with other books I have read.

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A quick read, this novel has some of the best passages I've seen from McEwan. He's just brilliant. It's essentially a tale of greed and self destruction. None of the characters are likable whatsoever. Although the book is may years old, I did find the moral discussions around Garmony so be extremely timely. I highly recommend this book, but do not expect anything lighthearted, humorous, or endearing.

[theampersand · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the second novel by Ian McEwan that I've read, and I think I may have to conclude Mr. McEwan and myself just do not get along. "Amerstardam" is what literature might be like if "Mrs. Dalloway" had never happened: there's hardly anyone in this book, who isn't wealthy, extremely accomplished, and very British. It invites comparison, of course, to "Saturday," McEwan's more obvious homage to "Daloway," which featured a successful brain surgeon who had a genius-kid blues guitarist and a prize-winning poet for kids. Clarissa Dalloway, we should remember, was neither particularly bright nor particularly accomplished, though she managed to be pretty memorable. I suspect that McEwan is positioning himself to be the favorite author of the new British ruling class, which probably gets him invited to some pretty good parties. "Amerstam" features the editor of a national British daily, a noted composer, a cabinet secretary, a photographer who'd worked for Vogue, and another prominent politician. You know, just folks. The other similarity to "Saturday" here is the fact that it seems to have an odd distrust of the written word. That book, let's remember, featured a venerable old poet getting socked right in the jaw after daring to stand up to a thug. "Amsterdam" gives us Vernon, a newspaper editor constantly at war with a faction of the staff he dismisses as "the grammarians," you know, newspaper writers who bother with the finer points of grammar and style. True, Vernon is attempting to find his fading paper's place in the new media landscape, but It's still kind of depressing, really, especially since McEwan's writing isn't bad at all. But Vernon's attitude seems to point toward the fact that McEwan, for all his use of the indirect third person, is a writer more interested in systems than people. That's not what I read novels for, though, thank you very much. There are some things to admire about "Amsterdam," beyond McEwan's prose. It features, as other reviewers have noted, a lovely account of the mechanics of artistic creation on the part of the composer, something that's surprisingly rare in fiction. And the book is, as a blurb has it "a well-oiled machine," the plot, with, as another reviewer noted, its Greek tragedy dynamics, really does lock together very nicely. And there's some dry humor here and there. But in the end, "Amsterdam" struggles to justify its existence: its seems a bit like literature for a post-literature world. And it is, at last, refreshingly brief. This thing got the Booker Prize? Heaven forfend!

[carmenere_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Molly is dead but the lives of her ex-lovers, Composer Clive, Journalist Vernon, Politician Julian and Caregiver George are entwined and layered in emotion. Ugh! I want to say more but I fear it will give too much away.

[ttaisi5editor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant -- funny and sharp.

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful, charming Molly has just died after what seemed like a short illness (perhaps alzheimers). Previous lovers are at her funeral along with her husband, George. Clive Linley is Britain's most successful and famous composer. His best friend, Vernon Halliday is the editor of a major newspaper. Julian Garmony is the Foreign Secretary and his politics are repulsive to both Clive and Vernon. A while after the funeral, George summons Vernon and shows him some very revealing and embarrassing pictures of Julian Garmony. Vernon must make the decision to either publish these photos or not. Clive advises not upsetting Vernon's feelings that the man needs to be brought down for the sake of the country. Tension between the two friends follow as both struggle with the issue. While on a hiking trip, Clive happens to come upon a man assaulting a woman but he turns and walks the other way. As time progresses, Vernon realizes that Clive has seen a serial rapist and did nothing. Due to Molly's impairment, Clive had once asked Vernon to assist him in a suicide if his life became such that he was not in control. Vernon at first was repulsed by the idea. Amsterdam has recently been in the news for having doctors that would help with anyone wanting to kill themselves.As time progresses and the friendship dies, both Vernon and Clive make plans to get revenge on the other in Amsterdam. This isn't a long book but one that has an interesting plot and twist. All of the characters seems very self-absorbed and not particularly likeable, but still are interesting.

[ireadthereforeiam · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was exciting and engaging and wonderfully descriptive almost all the way through. It was the ending that let it down. It was rushed and worse than that....I saw it coming thanks to the image on the cover of my edition. If the ending had been written longer, with more feeling, I could have really loved this book. It describes the friendship of two well-to-do London men. Both in high positions in their fields, and both formerly in love with a recently deceased woman. The two men both find themselves with a moral dilema and can only pick fault with the way the other friend acted. Their bitterness an anger with each other reaches fairly high stakes and the high drama takes place in the Amsterdam of the title.

[theportports · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So close to five stars! I really loved Amsterdam, and then the last thirty pages dropped my love to a strong like. I can't verbalize why, exactly. It seemed too, pat, too predictable, maybe. Too easy, and a then again a stretch of believably. I'm good as suspending belief in speculative fiction; I'm not sure that this is what should be happening here, though.What I loved: there was a great discussion about morality here that just struck a chord in me. I won't tell you what it is, because it could spoil a bit of the novel. But Clive's perspective on the morality of Vernon's actions as an editor really touched me. It's something I think we should think about, especially in this age of online attacks using any ammunition close at hand, collateral damage be damned.I also loved the description of Clive's composing process. This was beautiful writing, and I found myself slowing down to really taste the language. McEwan is good at that. Vernon's life as an editor was also interesting, though less appealing to me. That could be just that I identified with Clive, but not at all with Vernon. I wonder if one more extroverted than I am would be the other way around.This is the second McEwan book I've read; the first, On Chesil Beach, also involved music. But: I really didn't like it. This one was much more to my liking. I'll try at least one more McEwan novel before I decide what I think about him.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars.

The setup in this book is great. Character development, situations, etc.

But then it all wraps up too quickly. You can kind of see it coming--but it seems so absurd. But it is absurd. But how could that actually happen? Could it? McEwan's books always have somewhat out-there plots--but they are definitely things that could actually happen.

This one though? I'm not so sure. I rarely say a book needed more length. But this one does. A bit more depth of explanation before and after the final event.

[gpaisley_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was disapponited with this one. I thought the prose was very flat for McEwan and the plot was only mildly interesting. The best part was the insight into the process of composing, which, even then, got a little bogged down in itself.

[pamjw · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Vernon, Clive and Garmony - all past lovers of Molly. And George, her husband. Vernon and Clive are old friends, Garmony has no fans amongst any of them. Envy, spite and a desire to bring a downfall all play their = and the ultimate climax in Amsterdam.A brilliant, fascinating book, short and page-turning with an enexpected ending

[wester_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story is OK, but I really hated the ending. Maybe because I'm Dutch, and it really paints a cynical picture of the Netherlands, but I just can't stomach the view of human beings in general emanating from this book.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think McEwan is a master of description and character. It's too bad none of the people in this book were likable but maybe that was part of the point of the book.The book begins at the cremation of a woman who was a restaurant critic. Two of her former lovers are discussing the end of Molly's life which came quite suddenly after she first experienced neurodegenerative symptoms. Clive Linley is a composer and Vernon Halliday is the editor in chief of the newspaper The Judge. Another former lover of Molly's is Julian Garmony who is the Foreign Secretary in the Conservative government and said to be the next leader of the party. Linley and Halliday despise Garmony's politics and could never understand what Molly saw in him. When Molly's husband, George, finds pictures of Garmony dressed in women's clothing he contacts Halliday to see if he is interested in publishing them. Linley doesn't think they should be published and the two friends fall out. Ultimately all of Molly's lovers are irreversibly changed by the photographs.Pride goeth before a fall could be the motto for this book. We've all known people who have exceedingly high opinions of themselves without reason. I must say I thought these men deserved their fates.

[lilywren · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have to say I finished Amsterdam before I realised I'd started it! It's quite a quick read and I found McEwan's style of writing easy to follow. However, for me, there is something missing from the book and I'm not quite sure what. I found the characters a little thin and not very likeable and the story just plodded along. However, it won the Booker award so who am I to argue?The story centres around old friends, Clive and Vernon, who were at one time both lovers of a recently deceased woman (although not at the same time I hasten to add, or maybe they were? I wasn't really paying attention at one point). The book begins where we see them at her funeral where her husband and another former lover are in attendance. Molly had a lot of lovers it seems. The other characters are, whilst important, mainly peripheral to the story as McEwan focusses on the deteriorating friendship of Clive and Vernon. I don't really want to say much more about the story as I would run the risk of giving some serious spoilers.Ego is the key to this story I think. All the characters portrayed here aren't very likeable, sympathetic or nice. They have big egos and are extremely self-centred. I suppose that is the way it's meant to be, however, I just couldn't connect and for that reason always felt a bit detached from it. That said, I finished it, read it in good time and didn't actually hate the book so it gets 3 stars from me.

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was not too impressed with this book. I had read Atonement in the past and thought that book was really good but this one just left me a little bit bewildered as to why it won The Booker Prize. I will, however, check out a few more of his books because I know that he is a talented writer.

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This extremely far-fetched story begins at the funeral of 46-year-old Molly Lane, and the main characters are three of her ex-lovers and her husband. It becomes clear that free-spirited and vivacious Molly had atrocious taste in men, as all four are thoroughly despicable in different ways. I read all 178 pages in one insomniac session in the early hours of this morning, and although it didn't send me back to sleep, I can't say that I ever really got into it.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A thrilling page turner with very strong characters. Amsterdam is not quite a psychological thriller, but much of the drama is internalized. Remarkably the author gets a lot of mileage from the buildup to events the reader knows are coming. I needed to reread the ending to figure out exactly what had happened.

[cindysprocket · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Since there already so many good reviews. I'm just going to say I enjoyed it and after thinking about it . Reminded me of a Hitchcock or a Twilight Zone thriller. Which made it fun.

[flydodofly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent, clever read, in true McEwan fashion. A short study of everyday human behaviour, really, and how we end up hurting and hurt in the process.

[samsheep_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought this was tightly plotted and therefore hard to put down. I enjoyed the minutiae of his writing - words and phrases - but when I got to the end, I thought the plot turned out absurd so felt rather cheated. Did it really win the Booker? Quite surprised! I enjoyed it but only with reservations.

[perednia_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A trifle that had me wondering what all the fuss was about McEwan, read in 1999.

[zibilee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When the electrifying Molly Lane dies of a swift and terrible illness, two of her former lovers, Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday, meet at her funeral. Both men fear for the uncertainty of the future and their mortality, which leads them to make a pact with each other that will have vast and far-reaching consequences. Meanwhile, Clive, a modern genius of a composer, is charged with writing the score of the millennial concert, while Vernon is the editor-in-chief of a floundering newspaper that would do anything to increase its circulation. When Vernon receives stunning information about another of Molly's lovers, the foreign secretary Juilian Garmony, he believes that his newspaper can be saved from its torpor with news of this sensational story, but Clive strongly disagrees. In his opinion, Vernon is being traitorous to Molly's memory and more than a little unkind to Garmony. This argument seriously undermines the friends' relationship and pits each against the other. As Vernon rushes to get his story to print and Clive puts the finishing touches on his symphony, both men find that life has other plans for them. Both Clive and Vernon, driven by their desire for success and renown, will make a terrible choice that will lead them towards the paths of their destruction, and toward the agreement that binds them together.Frankly, I would read a telephone book if it was penned my McEwan. His perfect eye for prose and the significant weight of his dialogue has impressed me on many occasions. He has a way of capturing the visceral traits in human behavior that people so desperately try to hide. I believe very few authors can compare to McEwan's brilliance. That said, this book was disappointing. I felt that the characters had too much egotism and callousness to make them sympathetic. Vernon and Clive, although cut from different cloths, were much like two sides of the same coin. Clive was entirely too self-absorbed and shallow. He always seemed to be only half-aware of his social actions and their repercussions and he held firm to outdated beliefs and mindsets. Vernon was unlikeable as well. He was also self-absorbed, and there was a cruelty in him that made him slightly repugnant. I found myself growing very tired of his fits of righteous indignation and his issues of entitlement. I was ill at ease with both of these men and their behavior, and it made it very hard to connect and sympathize with their plights. I didn't feel sorry for either of them when things began to turn sour; in fact it seemed as though they were getting what they deserved. I felt rather impersonally towards these characters because neither of the men seemed to have any redeeming or humanizing qualities, nothing to give them the spark of life I was looking for. They seemed almost too stereotypical. I also didn't like the way in which their supposedly great friendship devolved into petty and inconsequential cat fighting. They carried their grudges like heavy weights across their backs, obsessing constantly over perceived slights. This got tiresome very quickly and made the story seem uninteresting and flat.The conclusion of the story had an ironic twist, but it was so absurdly concocted that it almost became comical. It was at once both overblown and operatic, and although I saw it coming, I couldn't believe it would actually play out in the way that it did. It seemed something so oddly out of character for this writer to conceive of a finale like this, and it ultimately strained the credulity of the book to the breaking point for me. Yes, this book was intended to be satirical, but I think it overreached and instead became ludicrous.After all the issues I had with this book, there were some very redeeming qualities about it. McEwan's writing was both clever and beautiful, elegant and cultured in a way that entrances. In certain parts of the book he writes so fluidly about the composition of music, I had to wonder if he ever studied classical music. The pages describing Clive at work on his symphony were lush, inviting and thrilling. In my opinion, they were the best scenes in the book. In addition, McEwan has a style of writing that is both acerbic and astute. He has great wit on the page and seems to have a way of unlocking a multi-layered strata of meaning in his narratives. My final impression was that though the language was both satisfying and rich, I felt that this book was reaching and could not find purchase, as there was too little to savor and far too much discordance in the story.For those who are McEwan fans, this book certainly deserves a perusal but I wouldn't recommend it to for a first time read of this author. If you are the type of person who is in love with language and appreciates the turn of a phrase above all, then this book will not disappoint, but if you are looking for something with a satirical bent there are better books out there. The fact that this book won the Booker Award is somewhat surprising to me. I think McEwan is a fabulous writer but this is not his finest work, and at times it felt like he was not giving it his all. If you really want to get a taste of McEwan's brilliance, I recommend Atonement.

[angelovesposito · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Disturbing, great book

[latorreliliana · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Short novel re 2 friends, one a journalist, who gets fired, the other a symphony writer. Girlfriend who dates all these men, and reveals compromising pictures of a powerful cabinet minister. Too short.