Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

E-Book, Library Book
Pub. Date: November 1999
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Fiction
3 stars

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 is Britain’s most successful modern composer; Vernon is 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 with 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.

It is ridiculous how enamored I have become of borrowing e-books. Going online to pick out a book, then you get an e-mail, and going back online to download the book. Then it is in my e-reader for 21 days, that’s if I get it from the eNYPL. This book was on my list of books to read and so when I saw it on the eNYPL website I requested it.

Ian McEwan has a way of creating characters that makes them live in my head, whether I love them hate them or feel indifferent about them. He also throws out tidbits of thought and ideas that at the time seem insignificant but later on you have an ‘AHA’ moment. All the little threads are drawn together. When I realized what was going to happen in Amsterdam, it was a laugh out loud moment.

Listed as a morality tale the dilemma is presented, and the characters actions are shown good, bad or otherwise with no judging, just a here it is, make your own judgments. This is the third Ian McEwan book I have read, so you can guess I am a fan of his work and would recommend this book.