Product Description

A contemporary morality tale that is as profound as it is witty. Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday are former lovers of the recently-deceased Molly Lane. They make a pact following her funeral, which both tests their friendship to the limits and has consequences neither has foreseen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #381100 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 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

Customer Reviews

His most accessible novel.
Okay, so not a complex and heavy read for the lovers of Amis, Rushdie and Barnes, perhaps, but Amsterdam is a really enjoyable read.

The principal characters are well formed and convincing and the story gallops along. You may well read it in a week-end as it is hard to put down. Whilst you will guess the penultimate page quite early in the book, the denoument is unexpected and surprising.

A book for everyone: McEwan fans, lovers of good stories and especially those wanting to try his work for the first time. Very good. Read it!

McEwan comes up with a condensed follow up to Enduring Love
McEwan's new Booker nominated novel positions him yet again as one of Britain's leading novelists. 'Amsterdam' is one of those works that literally shimmers with quality, the plot is so well structured that the text comes alive in an almost organic synthesis. Although this is a short work that explores similar themes to some of his earlier novels McEwan is seen to condense and mature his art rather than be found wanting for material to flesh out to greater length. McEwan's wit and humble excellence as a writer shine through at all stages, there is never a dull moment. Consistently he renders moral or ethical issues problematic and exposes assumptions as myth. Time after time the frailty of humanity is made explicit, not in an apocolytic fashion but in a way that makes the reader warm to the characters with a balance sympathy. Yes, 'Amsterdam' is a novel that may be consumed in one sitting but it is a work that you will easily revisit several times and still get alot out of it! This surely has to be a favourite for the Booker! Buy it! Read it! and enjoy!

Good Story, Good Twist, but missing something?
Amsterdam has a great story, with a great twist, and would make excellent Sunday night TV. Unfortunately, as a book, it lacks depth and therefore is too confusing and the story is spoilt. Enduring Love is a much better read.