Amsterdam

Rating:
Summary: A book for rumination
Review: I loved this book. Although the ending is "contrived," if you think about it, the whole story is poetic. Here are two men who cherish a lost friendship and come to a moral, but difficult, bargain only to realize neither has any true morality. It is brilliant and I loved the symbolism. I do see why this won the prize. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Why did this win an award? It was awful.
Review: The publisher's description of the book intrigued me. Knowing it had won an award, I thought it was a reasonably safe bet, so I ordered it. I am so very disappointed. There are 4 main characters - a dead woman of questionable morals (she's slept with everything that moves, but it's OK because she's "a nice person" ???), two of her ex-lovers (who are self-absorbed and mean-spirited), and a political figure who has a "dirty little secret". The writing, at some points, is good, but I just never found anything in any of the characters to make me care about what happens to them. And the ending, which is apparently supposed to be either a) profound or b) witty or c) both (?) had about as much fizz as a bottle of 7 up left open for a week.

Rating:
Summary: Great Style With Empty Emotion
Review: I read Amsterdam shortly after Enduring Love and had the same reaction to both books. The author has an incredibly gifted style of writing. Both books grabbed me from the start. Both books lost steam as the stories progressed and I struggled to find characters I cared about. Both books left me feeling empty by the end. I wanted to like both books but the great style couldn't overcome the lack of emotive substance for me.

Rating:
Summary: much ado about nothing
Review: well,i will advise potential readers to not get swayed by the impressive honour bestowed on this book.it is a very average read.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant style, too intricate plot, ending forced
Review: Best moments are elaborate descriptions of each major character's thinking during key, revealing moments. Especially crafted, brilliant are those sections portraying Clive composing a symphony. The same can be said for interiors of Vernon Halliday running his newspaper. But McEwan forces his plot into a somewhat contived ending, leaving the reader with the painful impression that the moral position a la Blake's "The Poison Tree" dominates the whole, and that the first exciting 9/10s of the tale is victimized. In fact, the "neat", spare and tidy close to the story does an injustice to a potentially promising, rich reading experience. The tale is tragic, but not as the writer intended. Brilliant earlier moments partially redeem the novel: subtle, but deadly undercut of Clive's own hope that his symphony is still laudable when conductor praises one of his youthful masterpeices; major conference of key newspaper staff approving of expose' of Julian Garmony, foreign minister of Great Britain; and the ripostes at Molly's wake between Clive and Julian, with the amazing slash by the foreign in ending the scene. Having read other Booker Prize winners, I'm a bit surprised that this captured the 1998 award. When compared with William Boyd's "An Ice-cream War", "Amsterdam" possesses the correct geographic proportion to East Africa. -R.D. Hughes, Jr.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite "Enduring Love"
Review: Like the reader from Amsterdam, I liked "Enduring Love" better. Even though "Amsterdam" is brilliantly written (this is why it won the Booker, and why I read it straight through in two sittings.) it takes place in more of a Iris Murdoch meets Weekly World News fantasy world, and the characters conspicuouly lack integrity. (Which makes it fun.) "Enduring Love" is grounded in reality and spectacularly plotted, with a central hero that we're not really sure about until the very end, and a true cliffhanger of an ending.

Rating:
Summary: The Height of an English Literary Suckfest
Review: How many ways can I say vapid? Aging boomer pretension taken to another level entirely. If I want such egregious injections of frivolous self-absorption, I'll handcuff myself to the sofa and watch back-to-back episodes of Ally Mcbeal. And what's more, I bought this book because Amazon.com featured it prominently. Ugh. Cynicism rising.

Rating:
Summary: Very good read.
Review: This short story is excellent. The dialouge is crisp and the pace is just right. Despite the fact that this a relatively short book, it is still a substantial read. I found myself hooked from the very first page. McEwans writing is similar to that of Martin Amis although the former seems more intent on telling a good story without wasting words.

Rating:
Summary: Think again?
Review: Like many other readers, initially I was extremely disappointed with the ending that seemed both contrived and a much too simple end to the development of the character's amorality. After a lively discussion with fellow readers, I have a few comments to make in attempt to add to what has already been published in these reviews:

Within the literary world of those judging for the Booker Award, I am sure many saw themselves, or their contemporaries, in the creative endeavours of Clive. Having been employed by a famous author/journalist for a summer, I saw an exact replica of that man in the fictional composer. Self-absorbed, chasing another piece of "genius" and in the end coming up with only an incompetent regurgitation of a master (or less). So sad, after emerging from all those days locked up with his muse. Yet, it is just the daily crafting of the writing and the real-life pressure of deadlines which may offer an explaintion for the ending of Amsterdam. As if the ending was foreshadowed by the events leading up to Clive's "unfinished" symphony I was left to wonder - was McEwen's ending rushed to get Amsterdam to the publisher? (A good manipulation if we buy it, but not commonly a mark of great fiction...?)

McEwen's comments on the morality issues as signs of the times may ultimately be the saving grace of the book. The male characters were true "men's men", woman and family were peripheral to their careers and their lives. George Lane almost survived symbolic of a man who would stick by his lover to the end rather than "put her out of her misery" as her old lovers had discussed. Yet, in the last few sentences he exposes himself to be of the same genre as the other men. And, as typical of the their era, the women stuck by their men in spite of their foibles. Yet, even though not a well-developed character, Molly Lane appears as a contemporary woman in that she lived much as the men did. A myriad of lovers, as if purposefully collecting an odd bunch of famous characters as lovers, then discarding them. Of course, why would she have kept any of them?!

There was also commentary on the problems caused by the media and the "fact" that the public will not tolerate the violation of privacy any longer. So true, yet a suggestion that more of the same will be coming from the younger journalists moving up the ranks, but in their case publishing with less depth and purpose.With recent events in the US and the problems caused by the media, I think the whole Garmony episode is fair commentary on the times.

So, due to the strengths of the character development that did take place and its social commentary on that generation, I believe the book will become more meaningful if it is re-analyzed. If the time is taken to see why it is a prize-winner, this little book is seen to have much more "potential" depth than first meets the eye. An economy of words and plot work when further thought and analysis are spurred in a discussion of the material presented. Of course,this may be pushing some readers beyond their interest level and this type of mental gyration will only appeal to a few - it probably did to those who awarded the Booker.

Rating:
Summary: unreal; less than 'Enduring Love'
Review: The book starts fine, the ending is abrupt and is not based on any reality, whatsoever. The policy in the Netherlands concerning euthanasia is not understood and ridiculed beyond recognition. His previous book has more depth and is less sketchy.