Product Description

On a chilly February day two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence, Clive as Britain's most successful modern composer, Vernon as editor of the quality broadsheet, "The Judge". Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister. In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact that will have consequences neither has foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life. A contemporary morality tale that is as profound as it is witty, this short novel is perhaps the most purely enjoyable fiction Ian McEwan has ever written. And why Amsterdam? What happens there to Clive and Vernon is the most delicious shock in a novel brimming with surprises.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3590 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
When good-time, fortysomething Molly Lane dies of an unspecified degenerative illness, her many friends and numerous lovers are led to think about their own mortality. Vernon Halliday, editor of the up-market newspaper The Judge, persuades his old friend Clive Linley, a self-indulgent composer of some reputation, to enter into a euthanasia pact with him. Should either of them succumb to such an illness, the other will effect his death. From this point onwards we are in little doubt as to the novel's outcome--it's only a matter of who will kill whom. In the meantime, compromising photographs of Molly's most distinguished lover, foreign secretary Julian Garmony, have found their way into the hands of the press, and as rumours circulate he teeters on the edge of disgrace. However, this is McEwan, so it is no surprise to find that the rather unsavoury Garmony comes out on top. McEwan is master of the writer's craft, and while this is the sort of novel that wins prizes, his characters remain curiously soulless amidst the twists and turns of plot. --Lisa Jardine

Review
McEwan returns to the theme of moral dilemma in this Booker Prize-winner. Molly, a socialite and restaurant critic with a huge appetite for life, dies after a long and distressing illness. Two of her ex-lovers meet at her funeral and, in the emotional aftermath, make an ill-fated promise to each other. In the meantime, Molly's husband, a dull and domineering publishing tycoon, has his own agenda - and soon each of the friends is forced to make a terrible decision on an issue of conscience. A complex and rewarding read. (Kirkus UK)

Winner of this year's Booker Prize, McEwan's latest (Black Dogs, 1992; Enduring Love, 1998) is a smartly written tale that devolves slowly into tricks and soapy vapors. When she dies of a sudden, rapidly degenerative illness, London glamour photographer Molly Lane is married to rich British publisher George Lane, although numerous erstwhile lovers still live and stir in the controversial Molly's wake. These high-visibility figures include internationally famed composer Clive Linley, racing now to complete his overdue magnum opus, a new symphony for the millennium; his close friend Vernon Halliday, the liberal, ambitious, idealistic editor of a London newspaper that's struggling hard to keep its readership; and right-winger Thatcherite Julian Garmony, now Britain's foreign secretary. The daily lives of these three high-profilers - though mostly of Clive and Vernon, who receive the main focus - are nothing if not interesting in the capable hands of McEwan, who shows himself more than plentifully knowledgeable in the details of journalism and music, describing with a Masterpiece Theater color and exactness the torments of composition and the rigors of keeping a big newspaper in business. The machinery of plot gradually takes over, though, when George finds, in Molly's left-behind things, three wildly incriminating sex-photos of the foreign secretary - and makes them available to Vernon Halliday, for whom the idea of bringing down the conservative Garmony (who's considering a run for PM) by publishing the pictures is irresistible. This plan of massive public humiliation, however, offends Clive Linley, who thinks of it as a deep betrayal of the dead Molly, and bitterness rises like a serpent in the CliveVernon friendship, hardly put to rest when Vernon learns of something morally dubious that Clive's just done - and that could, in fact, be made a nifty tool of revenge. And so things progress via trick, counter-trick, and backfire, in a novelistic try for a big ending that just gets littler instead. Middle-brow fiction British style, strong on the surface, vapid at the center. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
On a chilly February day two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence, Clive as Britain's most successful modern composer, Vernon as editor of the quality broadsheet, "The Judge". Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister. In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact that will have consequences neither has foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life. A contemporary morality tale that is as profound as it is witty, this short novel is perhaps the most purely enjoyable fiction Ian McEwan has ever written. And why Amsterdam? What happens there to Clive and Vernon is the most delicious shock in a novel brimming with surprises.

Customer Reviews

The Booker's Own Atonement?
The Booker lost all credibility when it was awarded to this drivel; I can only imagine that the panel either consisted entirely of McEwan's literary pals or else that it was some kind of belated attempt to...er...atone for the passing over of the brilliant Atonement a few years earlier.

Both decisions are incomprehensible.

There's nothing about the coffee-shops...
An ex-photographer and a well known restaurant critic, Molly Lane had been a beautiful, lively and funny lady. Her life had, sadly, been cut short through illness - a condition that had began with something as simple as a tingling in her arm. "Amsterdam" opens in early February, at Molly's memorial service.

Despite being married to George, Mollie had been a rather prolific lover - she'd had a string of affairs and (apparently) never really cared for her husband. However, for some reason, she'd never actually left him. George is the head of a publishing 'empire', one that operates in the crackpot conspiracy theories sector. His company also own a very small percentage of 'The Judge', a 'quality' newspaper based in London. He appears to be a morose, possessive man - a vaguely ridiculous character, though one who may have genuinely loved his wife. George had cared for Molly himself throughout her illness, rather than installing her in a home.

Among the mourners is Clive Linley, a famous and successful composer who had known Molly from their student days. He had been one of Molly's former lovers and is possibly a little deluded : he is convinced that he was the only one who had ever truly loved her, and that it should have been him who married her. Clive is currently writing the Millennial Symphony and, although it's close to completion, it's something that seems to be causing him a little stress. (A trip to the Lake District may just be the tonic he needs - Clive enjoys hiking, and sometimes visits the area when in need of inspiration). Unfortunately, Clive's stress levels aren't helped by vague tingle in his hand...and fears he has the same early symptoms that Molly had shown. Clive feels that Molly's decline robbed her of her dignity, and - given the opportunity - he believes he would have 'helped' her die. When he decides that he'd want the same thing for himself, there's only one person he would ask to help him.

Vernon Halliday is Clive's oldest friend and another of Molly's ex-lovers. He and Molly had lived together for a year in Paris, though he's currently based in London. He's currently the editor of `The Judge' - a position he'd won by being generally inoffensive, getting wildly lucky with a major scoop and then not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The previous four editors had been fired for failing to improve the newspaper's declining sales...Vernon is hoping to avoid their fate, by taking the newspaper towards the tabloid end of the market. Unfortunately, the situation seems to be getting to him a little, and he's feeling a little stretched. Like Clive, Vernon doesn't have a very high opinion of George - oddly enough, though, George may be in a position to offer both Vernon and the newspaper a helping hand. When going through Molly's effects, he'd stumbled across s few tasty photos of Julian Garmony - another on Molly's ex-lovers, and a high-ranking politician that both Vernon and Clive positively detest...

Garmony is a thoroughly unpleasant individual, a nasty xenophobe who (amazingly) holds the position of Foreign Secretary. (It's probably the sort of appointment a politician would probably find quite logical. Sadly, and unsurprisingly, he's also the hot favourite to be the next Prime Minister). He's strongly in favour of hanging, a punishment he once felt should have been applied to Nelson Mandela. (It's a position that should make his upcoming trip to South Africa a little spicy). Unfortunately, Clive and Vernon disagree on what should be done with the photos...Vernon is very keen to publishing them, and Garmony could well do with having the rug pulled from under his feet. However, Clive feels that publishing them would be a betrayal of Molly's trust...

In "Amsterdam", McEwan presents a collection of characters that aren't too easy to admire. It's really very difficult to feel any sympathy for Garmony, given his divisive views. George, Molly's husband, is the one character we probably should feel sorry for, but - by the book's end - I was left wondering why she had ever married him to begin with. Clive and Vernon's friendship fragments as time passes, with Clive (in particular) becoming increasingly deluded as the book progresses. Not great, though a short and easily read book.

A Booker prize ???
Mundane bordering the banal. It would have been a good short story (if less than 40 pages) but in this extended version one can't wait to get rid of it and the climax ending doesn't even save it.