Amsterdam

Rating:
Summary: Wickedly Rivetting
Review: This novel is witty, keen, full of social nuance, and sharply crafted. McEwan offers on a platter the paradox of differentiating between

CONDESCENTION IS THE HIGH PRICE OF ART & LIVE AND LET LIVE.

I wish he could have fleshed his characters out a bit more (by making the book longer perhaps), and the conclusion is straightforwardly Cynical. If its purpose was to leave a bad taste, the effect was right on. The concept of social Darwinism is alive and kicking.

Overall, a solid work of art.

Rating:
Summary: Light, yet filling.
Review: Amsterdam is not a masterpiece, nor what I perceive to be the crowning glory of Ian McEwan, but it is a fine novel... well worth the time spent in its pages. Who else can say so much, while using so little tree bark?
McEwan's skill is best seen in his ruthless dissection of character, and in this book, he stretches two guys out like laboratory frogs. We see their guts, (the inner workings), and follow the disintegration of a lifelong friendship... Like the hissing of live grenades, there is a brooding that lurks in his pages...yet McEwan keeps it all closer to being light and comical than heavy and morbid.
The amazon editorial review (above) gives a great synopsis of the book. I will add only that the story addresses the way that vocational (professional) ambition can supercede and radically displace the naked commitment of friendship. The dustjacket of my hardcover version depicts a duel taking place in a forested area. Does a duel take place in the book? No. But, suffice it to say... the dustjacket is appropriate in a way that will not be understood until the very final pages. And you will want to get to those pages.
This is the perfect book to take along with you when you know you will have 4 or 5 hours of non-interrupted reading time... (train, plane, bus, coffee-shop). If you can't find time to read McEwan, I must say to you, "Wow, are you ever busy!"

Rating:
Summary: Read It in One Sitting
Review: This is one of those books that people either really love or really hate. You can see that sentiment from these reviews. I loved this book and was hooked from in first 5 or so pages. I've read most of McEwan's novels, and this one reads like many of them. This novel won the Booker Prize, and it deserved to win it. But that's just my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: The two other novels by Ian McEwan that I have read (Enduring Love, The Cement Garden) were books that I loved-compelling, engrossing, provocative, emotional. This book however was overblown, pretentious and unbelievable. I didn't care for either character, both were immature and unsympathetic. The premise was based on a series of events that would never, ever happen. The climax was predictable and unfulfilling. I think McEwan is an amazing writer, and I don't know how this book of all his novels won the Booker Prize.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I read this book entirely on a rainy sunday afternoon. I could not put it down. The book is mesmerizing,with a bizare ending. The book was amazing how something that seems so good so right,just turns around and bites you. If this is Ian's least favored book,then I must get the rest.

Rating:
Summary: Not Booker prize material
Review: The author twists a plot about love and revenge, but gets tangled in it's web. Mr McEwan must have used a writing program, as the structure is so smooth you could skate on it. But that's all this book has to offer.The characters have personalities of cardboard cutouts. They are stiff and forced and I didn't develop empathy for any of them.If this book was a painting, it would be black and white.

Rating:
Summary: I'd rather read an article on euthanasia
Review: Sorry to differ from the majority of customer reviewers, and the committee of the Booker Award, but this was a waste of my precious reading time. The characters were totally self-serving, although Molly is already dead on page one, and might have been interesting. The central theme of vacuous friendship, and of euthanasia's legality in Amsterdam, were depressing. There are so many books more valid in content and interest than this one.

Rating:
Summary: The latent cruelty of average individuals
Review: In practice I gave this book my highest possible recommendation: after reading my own copy, I bought 2 more and gave them to friends as gifts. Ian McEwan is a master of his craft, and he skilfully uses the English language to portray some of the worst facets of human character - doing so, appropriately, through three rather banal individuals, Vernon Halliday, Clive Linley and George Lane, each professionally successful but otherwise unremarkable; certainly a welcome departure from stereotypical archvillains. Anyone who's ever had a vindictive ex-friend or bitter lover will find resonant both the characters' thirst for revenge and the lengths to which they will go to satisfy that thirst. A fourth main character, Julian Garmony, is put through hell in order to serve personal goals of Halliday and Lane; this too is an entirely accurate depiction of the perceived irrelevance of "collateral damage" caused others to those who are bent upon advancement or revenge. This story is a real page-turner, there are many unexpected twists, and it accurately depicts some of the darker areas of human nature. By the time it is over, one is forced to acknowledge a disheartening truth laid bare by war crimes trials in the last century: extraordinary cruelty is not extraordinary at all, but rather is easily found dormant in the hearts and minds of average individuals, waiting only to be aroused.

Rating:
Summary: Sparse prose with poetic elements
Review: This is a most unusual book which deals with a strange topic and has a uniquely bizarre cast of characters who are also rather unlikable right from the start. The subject is euthanasia, now legal in Amsterdam. The book is a case study of how it could potentially be misused to justify and get away with premeditated murder. The protagonists ruminate with pity on the deterioration of Molly, an amazing and unbelievable larger than life heroine who reputedly could still perform age defying cartwheels after 40 , work as a professional restaurant critic and not only bed down the rich and famous, but retain their life long undying affection. The four main characters are all introduced to us in the first chapter in a very interesting setting, as they attend the cremation of Molly, now a deceased former lover they all share in common.

It is quite clear from the outset that circumstances make them rivals pitted against each other, even while two former lovers see themselves as friends and allies . Jealousy motivates their interactions with other lovers milling about as well. Twice we are witness to really nasty verbal interchanges. In subsequent chapters the author shows us interesting scenes of the composer and the newspaper editor hard at work. He reveals them both as morally flawed when they fail to live up to the challenging choices they must make and instead choose very self centered options which will ultimately serve to plummet them to their destinies.

As some readers have commented this can be a fast read and can be finished in just a few hours. The prose the author uses is a simple and flowing sentence structure. One can rapidly gain an understanding of the plot and grasp the gist of its few central characters. The work is however, intended to be read much more slowly with appreciation for the thoughts in between the lines which are lost if one speeds through. There is a poetic aspect to McEwan's writing and one needs to slow down to appreciate it. One of the book's themes very much concerns jealous rivalry and possession. Early on the composer meditates about Molly and rues: " Now she was fine ash in an alabaster urn for George (Molly's husband) to keep on top of his wardrobe." George who was always forced to share her will ultimately come out a winner. "All in all things hadn't turned out so badly on the former-lovers front." Contemplating finally having a memorial service, George thinks to himself that "he alone would make the speech, and no one else. No former lovers exchanging glances."

I would agree with readers who do not think this novel is on par with some of the other Booker prize winners. It is none the less a worth while read.

Rating:
Summary: Two thirds of a good book
Review: I greatly enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book. The denouement, however, is highly contrived, with the characters' actions being dictated by the needs of the plot rather than by the personal characteristics which McEwan has attributed to them. McEwan may have intended this as a parallel to a development in the plot, but if he did he's still wasting our time.