Rating: 
Summary: Not McEwan's best, but that's still very good
Review: I've become a real fan of Ian McEwan this past year, and though I'm not completely through his catalog, I'm very impressed with his ability to have great ideas within a tight story. This may be his tightest story ... it moves very quickly, and the book can be finished in 3 to 4 hours.The main characters, a composer and a newspaper editor, become embroiled in a political scandal that relates to the affair each has had with a recently deceased woman. Their friendship becomes strained, and the miscommunication that develops drives the story. The story moves quickly, and I disagree with those who dislike the ending -- it does work, at least for me. I also think this book works as a good introduction to McEwan. Its spare style is indicative of his work. When you've finished this book, move on to Atonement or Enduring Love: both are excellent books. A few general words about Ian McEwan. He pays great attention to the word choice in each sentence, but unlike some other post modern types, he has a real story with a real conflict. Among modern writers, there seems to be some dislike of plotting, but McEwan shows that you can write about interesting ideas and have a good story as well.
Rating: 
Summary: A great LITTLE read
Review: If your like me, you like a great story with great characters, but get annoyed when books drag on too long. This book has all the ingredients of a great novel, without being overly long. McEwan sticks to the plot and the central characters, developing them quickly and getting right to the punch. No straying off on tangents or filling pages with unnecessary fluff. While this isn't one of the 10 best books I have ever read, it is a great story filled with characters you hate as well as any. Read it!
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.
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