Amsterdam

Rating:
Summary: There's Something About Molly
Review: [Warning: this review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.]

While McEwan's brilliant "Atonement" moves along at a snail's pace, "Amsterdam" is here and gone in the blink of an eye. It's not that the novel is fast-paced or a page-turner--there just aren't many pages. I finished the book over the course of 3 lunch hours at work and it wasn't that there was a lot of exciting stuff going on in the novel.

The story is about two friends and a politician who all loved Molly Lane, who we never actually see because the story begins at her funeral. Vernon, the editor of a stodgy newspaper, receives some revealing pictures taken by Molly of the politician--who is in line to become the next prime minister--from Molly's widow. At the same time, Vernon's friend Clive is writing a Millennial Symphony and inadvertantly witnesses a rape in the mountains that he doesn't tell the police about. Clive is incensed when Vernon runs the pictures, because he feels it disgraces Molly's memory. Vernon is angry at Clive because Clive is angry with him and Vernon figures out that Clive witnessed the rape and didn't go to the cops. When the pictures come out, the politician is able to win the support of the people but is blackballed in political circles.

So then, for reasons I still don't understand, Vernon and Clive poison each other in Amsterdam and are put to death by Dutch suicide doctors. Huh? Did they mean to kill each other or was it just an accident? A case of mistaken identity or something? That's what my first reaction was, but now I'm pretty sure they both meant to do it. Maybe I'll have to reread the book at some point (when I have a couple of free hours).

The entire problem with this novel is that it's too short. There's simply not enough of a build-up to provide adequate reason for why two lifelong friends would decide to bump each other off. Granted they had difficulties, a couple of rows (as they say in England), but that wasn't reason enough for murder. Both guys were under quite a bit of stress, but would it really drive them to whack each other? I don't think so.

Maybe it's because this book is British, but I know in America people would not be so forgiving if they found out a top politician was dressing as a woman and posing for pictures. Just because the man's wife comes out and says, "I know about it and I'm cool with it" doesn't mean everyone is going to instantly forgive him and call for the head of the newspaper editor who would dare to run the pictures. Thinking of recent presidential transgressions, people are more apt to shrug and say, "Well, it's OK as long as it doesn't affect him getting the job done." but an angry mob wouldn't storm the newspaper like Dr. Frankenstein's castle or anything. The entire scenario seemed contrived to me.

To get on my soapbox for a minute, I think what would have really helped this book were some flashbacks. Don't just TELL us how much Clive, Vernon, the politician, and the widow cared for Molly, SHOW us through some flashbacks of the time they all spent with Molly. That would have not only fleshed out Molly, but also would have given readers a better understanding of why two old friends were willing to kill each other over her memory and it would have better defined her relationship with the politician so that we might know why he posed for those pictures in the first place. On the whole, I think that would have really helped the story by adding some useful length.

McEwan's writing is competent as always, but having read "Amsterdam" and "Enduring Love", I'm really not impressed with his work other than "Atonement". I certainly wouldn't have given this book the Booker Prize (the British equivalent of a Pulitzer).

"Atonement" was like a haunting, beautiful melody that sticks with you long afterwords (with its slow build-up I always think of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" you know, that song they used in "Platoon") while "Amsterdam" is a quick little pop song that went in one ear and out the other (like a Britney Spears song). It's too short, too underdeveloped to make it worth the purchase price.

Rating:
Summary: Meet me at the cremation
Review: An odd beginning for McEwan's Booker Prize winner, but it's true. Two friends meet at the cremation of Molly Lane, a woman they 'shared.' One is a newspaper editor, the other is a composer. There's a 3rd guy, too, a politician. Then skullduggery enters the stage: the editor discovers photos of the politician in drag among Molly's things, and engages in a moral debate with himself about whether to publish them or not. There are several other issues, as well, that contribute to the book's focus on art, morals, politics, greed - and soon the two friends are bitter enemies.
Not nearly as good as Atonement, IMO, but still very, very good.

Rating:
Summary: Too Clever For Words
Review: Not sure how or why this won the Booker Prize. With one exception, the characters are a mean-spirited lot, and the novel just oozes cynicism. A couple of very funny bits provide some relief. But if you want this author's best, read Atonement. If you want a more satisfying story of betrayal and back-stabbing, read The Pardoner's Tale by Chaucer.

Rating:
Summary: "Amsterdam" in winter
Review: Ian McEwan is, without a doubt, one of the greatest writers of dark fiction today. But his novella "Amsterdam" is something of a misfire, reading more like the sluggishly-filled-out outline for a novel rather than a novel itself. His usual introspection and depth is both missing and sorely missed.

Molly Lane is dead, her mind and body wrecked by an unspecified brain disorder. Now her assorted lovers and friends reunite one last time, including Molly's ex-boyfriends Clive and Vernon, respectively a prominent composer and a not-so-respected newspaper editor. Because of Molly, they are friends -- and they enter into a pact because of her death.

But things go awry when Vernon gets his hands on photos of the Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, cross-dressing and photographed by Molly. Eager to bring down Garmony and bring up his readership, Vernon wants to publish the photos in his newspaper; Clive is disgusted by this, yet he allows a rapist and murderer to go free for the sake of his musical inspiration. Which man is worse?

"Amsterdam" is like a city in winter, pretty at a distance but rather empty and cold when you walk through it. In theory it has all the elements needed for a great novel, but it feels vaguely unfinished, as if McEwan was expanding an outline into a full-fledged novel but somehow never finished the job. It's too quick in places, crawls like a slug in others.

The characters are lacking in the complexity found in most of McEwan's other books, where many dimensions can be found. Clive is almost impossible to connect with; Vernon is more understandable, given his waning career. Garmony is poisonous without it being clear why, and George Lane (Molly's staid husband) seems promising but doesn't go much of anywhere.

Aside from the characters, the prose is rather obvious and often lacking in insight: it describes what the characters do, but very little of what they think. As a result, some of the actions -- such as Clive watching a woman being attacked -- seem almost random. It feels half-finished, as if McEwan weren't quite sure how to make the novel come to like. But in places, such as Mrs. Garmony's public speech about her husband and Vernon, his brilliance shines forth.

So while an acceptable novel by most standards, it's perhaps the least of McEwan's works thus far. Has its moments of brilliance, but overall dreary and empty.

Rating:
Summary: Amsterdam succeeds, but doesn't exceed
Review: I finished reading McEwan's well-orchestrated Booker winner "Amsterdam" in a few hours. I found myself wrapped up in this book intensely, and I could not put it down. This book contains more entertainment than it does quality. It was a good book, but not as exceptional as the breathtaking "Atonement" or the beautifully disturbing "The Cement Garden". There are fuzzy bits in the end, but otherwise, the conclusion was daring, shocking, and...well, McEwan. He loves shaking his readers up in the end by throwing wild surprises at them.

Clive, a composer, and Vernon, editor of the "Judge" broadsheet, have been friends for a while. They are former lovers of Molly Lane (dated her at one time or another in the past) , who died obviously of some type of disease but it is never really named. As the two enter a clear state of madness over this loss in their life, a pact is made. They agree if one of them is to go into madness as Molly did, the other one shall kill them. It is a euthanasia, which causes a chain reaction of events from beginning to end. As Vernon and Molly's husband (now a widower) dig up evidence that Julian Garmony, foreign secretary and former fling of Molly, is in fact a hypocrite, Clive tries to battle with his own demons of depression over the loss of Molly. This events lead to a stunning finale, and I was completely absorbed by every second.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Character Study!
Review: I loved the way this thought-provoking book inspired me to contemplate matters which probably would have never fallen under my consideration otherwise. Especially illuminating was the description of the composer's creative process as he works on his latest symphony.

I found the book to be structurally flawed in its uneven pacing, sluggish at times and rushed at other times. Even though I liked the ending, I was disappointed by the somewhat contrived route by which the ending arrived.

The books tracks the mercurial relationship of the two main characters, men of a long-standing friendship of many years and shared history, while each is undergoing undue stress at the same time. Even though there are marked differences in these two men in terms of talent, interests, home life, etc., they each respond to this stress in similar ways. Why? Could it be because their descent into emotional irrationality is just one of the truths of the human condition? McEwan so authentically and admirably depicts an innate human inclination common to all of us. For me, it made these men very sympathetic characters. A great book for introspection. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing though not Filling
Review: As in his current best seller "Atonement," McEwen takes an idea, a conceit, and carries it throughout the novel. In "Atonement," he explored the lifelong impact of a young girl's lie. In "Amsterdam," he examines a promise between two London gentlemen that each will kill the other if he becomes too ill to live with dignity.
The book begins with the memorial service of Molly, a good time London girl of the intelligentsia, which is filled with a number of her former lovers. Molly suffered from and eventually fell victim to a debilitating, crippling disease. Thus, the pact between the two London gentlemen.
This book examines a number of series themes: mortality, fidelity, integrity, journalistic standards, loyalty, decency. McEwen uses his characters and his plot to explore and expand on these themes-not the themes to develop his characters. At times, that can be frustrating. While I admired his plumbing of such serious issues, I wanted more about the characters.
I would recommend this book to those individuals who enjoyed "Atonement" and are looking for more McEwen. I also would recommend this book to those individuals who like contemporary fiction, particularly contemporary British fiction (e.g., Martin Amis). I would caution individuals who seek either extensive character and plot development or conversely, fun and easy reads, to think before they pick up this book. You may need something "heavier" or "lighter." However, most serious readers should like "Amsterdam."

Rating:
Summary: Never a false note . . .
Review: This isn't a very long novel, only 193 small-sized pages -- but McEwan certainly packs a lot of character into it. Clive Linley is a famous composer who has been commissioned to write Britain's Millennial Symphony. He lives well and secretly considers himself to be probably a genius. Vernon Halliday is editor-in-chief of a newspaper whose readership is declining and who is noted among his colleagues for not filling up much space in his environment. Both men are past lovers of the marvelous Molly Lane, recently deceased, and probably would never have become such friends were it not for her. Now George, the late Molly's quietly jealous husband, has found in her effects a set of cross-dressing photos of the ambitious, right-wing Foreign Minister whom both Clive and Vernon abhor, and which they all expect will be the political end of him. Vernon wants to publish them, which will also boost his paper's (and his own) fortunes; Clive regards that as a betrayal of Molly's memory. But Clive has his own moral dilemma: While hiking in the Lake District to try to get his creative juices flowing again, he happens upon what he later learns is an impending rape -- but he dreads the interruption of his composing fit and leaves the scene unnoticed. And Vernon (to whom Clive has confided his experience) threatens to tell the police himself. What happens afterward, what results from the two men's outrage and personal disasters, draws the reader attentively along until the final ironic, frightening events in Amsterdam. McEwan's dryly witty style and his ear for nuanced dialogue is, as always, marvelous, and the book deserves its Booker Prize.

Rating:
Summary: Graceful yet empty
Review: Ian McEwan is a gifted writer whose ability to fashion language to his own strange ends and make it breathe with beguiling life marks him out as one of the best of British at the moment. This undoubted talent has garnered him many accolades, and Amsterdam, as most readers will already know, was awarded the 1998 Booker Prize. In my mind this recognition was deserving for what McEwan has achieved in his career so far, but was definitely given to the wrong book - Atonement and The Child in Time are superior works.

As always, the intricacy of the plot, the narrative themes and the quality of McEwan's prose are precisely crafted. He has a gift for phrasing that few British novelists since Graeme Greene have matched, and some of the passages in Amsterdam are delightful. However, none of the characters are sympathetic, or even especially interesting, and this is the problem at the heart of the novel. I read it in a day, but three quarters of the way through, when I pretty much knew what was going to happen, I had ceased to care who lived and who died - it was only McEwan's fine prose that kept me interested.

After the death of Molly Lane four of her ex lovers, including her husband, are drawn together in a current of events which will ultimately see three of them dead or ruined: Clive Linley, the archly conservative composer, out of touch with the modern world; Vernon Halliday, the selfish, down-at-heel newspaper editor; Julian Garmony, the poisonous Foreign Secretary; and George Lane, the preposterously rich and unimaginative husband. We are shown the faults of each of the men as they react to the situations put in front of them, and a chain of events is set in motion that will ultimately lead to the final denouement.

What I found particularly unsatisfying about Amsterdam was the rather hurried and unconvincing breakdown in the novel's central friendship that led to the book's conclusion. It seemed a rather convenient dramatic device that was useful in allowing an exploration of the ethical issues surrounding euthenasia, but artistically speaking, did the novel a disservice. I guess ultimately Amsterdam is a cautionary tale, but I can't help thinking it is really a short story stretched out to fill a couple of hundred pages - it does have that characteristic twist in the tale that is the currency of shorter fiction, and lacks the compassion and insight that the best novels lay claim to. However, don't let this fool you into assuming this is a bad novel. It is not - though by McEwan's ever rising standards, Amsterdam does feel like treading water. I'd urge you to read Atonement instead, and see what this author is really capable of.

Rating:
Summary: lacking
Review: I decided to read this book after reading McEwan's newer book, Atonement, which I liked. But I didn't like Amsterdam much at all. It seemed disjointed somehow. There was no character development and the central person that ties the rest of the characters together is dead before the book even starts. It's a very strange story that seems lacking somehow. I couldn't quite get my brain around this one.