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.
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.
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