Rating: 
Summary: Borrow from the Library...
Review: which is what I did since I'm in Central Europe and don't have an adequate English-language bookstore to troll. Had heard so much about the book and the author that I thought I'd give both a shot. I'm happy I didn't pay one cent for this absurd book about a deceased woman's former lovers. Who would buy this drivel?! The plot is unbelievable and the ending's "twist" read's like an intellectual Abbott and Costello "Who's on 1st" routine. But wait, I don't want to insult A&C.
Rating: 
Summary: Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Review: Twisted ending with a predictable storyline... Perhaps it's because too much wine has given it away.And where is the humorous part other the main satire?
Rating: 
Summary: Unremarkable
Review: Uninspiring characters, short-story plot in full-length form, and lack of depth. Completely unremarkable book that has me wondering what the Booker prize people look for these days.
Rating: 
Summary: Provocative
Review: I found this slim book to be one of the most provocative I've read in a long time--the proof being that I'm still thinking about it a good twenty-four hours after I finished reading it. The portraits of the two men (friends) drawn are wonderfully complex and contradictory. Both Clive Linley, the successful composer, and Vernon Halliday (the newspaper editor) are fearful men who one moment do absolutely the right thing and, the next, do something shockingly heartless. Their interior machinations are fascinating: Linley's near narcissism and his obsessive focus on finishing his Millennium Symphony cannot be shifted, even to help a woman in trouble; yet he takes the moral high ground (not without cause) when it comes to Vernon's publishing damaging photographs of the Foreign Secretary. Halliday is so outraged by the Foreign Secretary's social agenda and so determined to boost his newspaper's faltering circulation that publishing the photographs, to his mind, will solve two problems at once: to disgrace Garmony and drive him out of office, and to jack up the paper's circulation. Interesting, complex issues.The friends' subsequent falling out is so viable and well-constructed that the ending, in Amsterdam of course, comes not only as the logical result of a promise each made to the other following the death of their mutual friend and former lover, Molly Lane, but also as a shocking resolution to a book that depicts every character in his or her totality--warts and all. It's a stunning accomplishment, exquisitely written and constructed--a contemporary morality tale that offers much food for thought.
My highest recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: great musical insight
Review: I love this author. I preferred Enduring Love to this as I didnt always follow the characters and wasnt totally involved in this book the same way as Enduring Love. That may say more about me than the story however. I loved the insight into musical creation through the eyes and mind of Clive, the composer. Obviously, McEwan has studied composition, interviewed composers, or composes himself. Great insight and as a musician, I found this very interesting. Recommened read but I'd start with Enduring and I have yet to read Atonement which Time called the indisputable masterpiece of 2002. Cant wait..
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing exploration of modern-day morality
Review: The sign of a great novel, often, is that it is difficult to describe in just a few sentences. Such is the case with this one. Though it weighs in as a lightweight at just under 200 pages, it is heavy on both plot and meaning. At the heart of this novel are two characters facing separate moral dilemmas. Each makes a disastrous decision and is forced to deal with the consequences. Through these two characters and their decisions, McEwan explores the issues of morality and selfishness. His prose is elegant, simple, and powerful. This is great writing, and well-deserving of the Booker Prize that it won.
Rating:
Summary: Booker Schmooker
Review: The best I can say about this book is that it tries to be one of those lightweight satiric novels that established authors sometimes toss off when they need to get something into print. It reads like it took a long weekend to write, and it takes about two hours to read. I suppose getting the two disagreeable central characters bumped off in an abrupt and unlikely manner is some sort of happy ending. None of the characters are likeable (rabid right-winger; hedonistic dead lover; conniving tabloid sleaze editor; self-absorbed, vain composer) and are too thinly sketched to be particularly interesting. Finally, anyone thinking the book might actually have something to do with the city of Amsterdam will be in for a let down. Enduring Love and Atonement were pretty interesting books; this one is merely annoying.
Rating:
Summary: Wicked black comedy that is quintessentially McEwan
Review: Amsterdam" won the 1998 Booker Prize, but it is not in my opinion Ian McEwan's best novel. "Enduring Love" and his latest, "Atonement", are far superior pieces of work. It is nevertheless a wickedly clever black comedy depicting the heartlessness and moral bankruptcy at the core of a society that thinks nothing of playing "God" with our own lives and that of others, or even resorting to murder to remove any obstacles that may lie in our paths to personal glory. There isn't a single moral character in "Amsterdam". Neither Clive (music composer), nor Vernon (editor), nor Julian (Foreign Secretary), nor George (publisher). Even the promiscuous Molly Lane has a better score card than her ex-lovers only because she is dead. Molly is invisible except in their dreams but her eyes are the lens through which we observe their acts of ruthless scheming. Clive may be outraged by Vernon's betrayal of Molly's memory but he is no better when he doesn't bother to report a crime he may have witnessed while lost in thought over the construction of his millennium anthem. McEwan's acerbic wit and razor sharp gift with language shines throughout, even as he takes us on an excursion into Clive's mind as he muses over the melody and movement-in-progress of his would-be masterpiece. Needless to say, the denouement McEwan has engineered for us renders more than a touch of poetic justice to our two ugly protagonists. A little sick perhaps, or even hyperbolic but then again, it's also quintessentially McEwan and he's brought us to darker places before. I enjoyed "Amsterdam" very much. It is brilliantly crafted, inspired even in parts, but one can't help the feeling that it was a consolation Booker Prize that McEwan won for his earlier works. "Atonement", his latest, is a far more complex and accomplished novel but it lost to Peter Carey's "True Story Of The Kelly Gang"....but then again, the book awards - like the Academy Awards - are sometimes more about politics than merit and that's a murky area we don't want to get into. Suffice to say that "Amsterdam" is an excellent novel that McEwan fans will most definitely enjoy. It may even win over new fans.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother reading this book unless you have a lot of time
Review: This book was very boring unless you're into composers and very familiar with movements, symphonies, etc. Also, I found that I had to read almost half the book to really understand and define the characters. The premise at the end that the two would actually be clever enough for each to give the other poison and kill each other was absolutely absurd. This is the first McEwan work I've read and I'm not sure I'll read another.
Rating:
Summary: At last - a rival for Jeffrey Archer
Review: Fortunately I received this book as a gift. If I'd paid for it I would be down in book store demanding a refund. 'Amsterdam' fails on every level of engagement with the reader. The plot is hopelessly incredible. Even Jeffrey Archer would be embarrassed by the artlessly contrived ending where the two main characters simultaneously arrange each other's murder. Every 'twist' of the plot is signposted with consumate clumsiness. Would the priceless expose of a transvestite cabinet minister backfire so spectacularly on an editor? What country does McEwan think we live in? Such revelation would hardly provide the opportunity for popular pluralism that McEwan would have us believe in. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but the public hanging of credibility is quite another.
Characterisation is equally poor at best, and 'down-write' incredible at worst. Would Clive really stand by while a woman is raped just so that he can notch up a few more musical notations? This, by the way, is the same bleeding heart Clive who so excoriates Venal Vernon for his lack of conscience. Of course characters should be complex, but not so inconsistently contradictory.
As for the style of the piece; it is nearly always painfully pretentious, no more so than when Clive is described thinking about his music. I think the term 'movement' is unwittingly apposite here. Elsewhere McEwan's writing is lazy and riddled with cliches.
Verdict: Save your time and money for something more deserving.
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