Amsterdam is the satirical tale of two friends and the course their friendship takes; that is, if one can call them friends. Deceiving as to the title of the book, the story takes place mainly in London. Only in the last pages we find the two main characters in Amsterdam.

Of the two friends, Clive, the musician, is commissioned to write a symphony, and Vernon, the newspaper editor, is after raising the popularity and the circulation numbers of his paper. The story opens with the death of another catalyst character, Molly. Molly has left an indelible effect on the two men, and their preoccupation with her dictates the flow and the ending of the novel.

The most shared and noticeable characteristic of Vernon and Clive is that they overdo and overreach with most anything they do. The characters, even the secondary ones, are impeccably drawn with stark wit and somewhat harshly, and most of them are atypical and flawed, but then overall, this novel is a dark psychological drama, one we can easily call a modern tragedy.

Although the story has all the aspects of a suspense novel with love, murder, and revenge themes, it falls short of the keeping the reader on edge; however, I found the writing literary, masterful, and with irony, and the story a bit on the disturbing side.

The book is easy to follow and of medium size with 178 pages, and the plot has action among the dealings of its characters, but it is mostly implied or psychological action.

This novel has won the Booker Prize in 1999.

The author's skill in character portrayal.

According to the biography on Amazon’s page: “Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author of short stories and novels for adults, as well as The Daydreamer, a children's novel illustrated by Anthony Browne. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His other award-winning novels are The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, and Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize.”

I recommend it only if you enjoy dark literary tragedies full of death, though not in the supernatural sense.

This is not a story with a happy ending, but it gives the reader a few chuckles along the way for it points out to the human foibles and the failing social structure. Although I enjoyed it, I would say, read at your own risk.

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Created Feb 06, 2013 at 12:47pm • Submit your own review...