Amsterdam

Are extra-marital affairs really the norm among upper-middle-class families? Seems every novel I read these days assumes that everyone is having them--multiple affairs with fascinating partners while spouse is presumably doing the same. Somehow this does not connect with my view and experience of family life. Amsterdam is another novel based on affairs; in this case two successful Londoners with elegant, fascinating Molly. Molly, the wife of a vastly wealthy London media mogul, has recently died apparently of early-onset Alzheimer's disease and the friends, Clive the composer and Vernon the newspaper editor, are faced now with their own late-middle-age anxieties and insecurities, partly provoked by Molly's untimely and humiliating demise. Clive's and Vernon's anxieties and career stumblings give the plot its motive force and point. (I also find it surprising that characters in this novel as well as in some others, mostly British or Irish e.g. Shroud by Banville, that I have read recently can drink such gargantuan amounts of alcohol without keeling over. Do people in the arts and media really drink that much, or is this just another fantasy?) Despite having a very different view of family and social life than I have experienced in my mundane life, I found this novel to be entertaining and absorbing. In fact I loved it. Amsterdam is not great literature but it is fun and interesting, and provokes nods of amusement and recognition as one avidly reads along. The ending that so many other reviewers complain about is obviously a spoof. But it is not without value in that it provokes just a tinkle of worry about the ethics and practice of euthanasia. Other interesting ethical issues are gently raised and focused in the course of this short novel. (American readers, of which I am one, should be aware that a central portion of the plot turns on issues of newspaper publication that could not arise in the USA where First Amendments rights hold force. In the USA the pictures could just be published without the injunctions, court case, and so on. This would make a huge difference to the outcome.) I recommend this book highly especially to those of us facing a somewhat wobbly aging process and diminishing careers.

I really didn't know what to expect from this book. I bought it because it's a booker prize winner and I've enjoyed every title I've read by the author so far. The story started out slow and I had no idea where it was going. I didn't know until close to the end that it had been building up to a shocking and darkly humorous climax. The two main characters are vain, contemptible creatures and their internal and external dialogues are delightfully witty and funny and had me laughing out loud in a few places. McEwan is simply brilliant, and I highly recommend this book.

I read "Amsterdam" after reading Ian McEwan's amazing "Atonement," and I think the key theme for both books is that bad things happen to relatively good people who commit moral wrongs, while good things happen to those who are innately or inherently bad. That's because good people are burdened with a conscience, a good person's Achilles' heel. After reading this book, I realized that no true "hero" is present in either book, unless you consider the wronged servant's son, Robbie, in Atonement, and Molly Lane, in Amsterdam. Of course, Molly appears in the book only as a reflection, since the story begins at her funeral. But she is the wronged innocent person in this story. All the former men in her life are not really evil, they are just opportunists and egoists. Worst of all, they are all rivals on some level, and that's what does two of them in. The composer Clive Linley and his editor friend Vernon Halliday actually have good intentions, but when the editor betrays Molly after her death (thanks to her now widower husband, George Lane), their intentions go awry, along with their friendship. As in Atonement, the struggle between good and evil is chiefly internal. In Atonement, one of the main players is undone by a self righteous deed performed during a bout of heightened self importance. In Amsterdam, Clive and Vernon suffer the same fate, turning on each other when confronted by the immorality of their actions. And, as in Atonement, the more unsavory characters continue on their way, unburdened by any conflict of internal doubts. If Ian McEwan had written It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey would have jumped into the river, after convincing himself to do something crookedly noble to replace the Savings and Loan's missing money and then having to face his conscience as a result; and at the very end, Mr. Potter would be counting his new money, having no conscience to make him second guess any actions on his part that helped lead to Bailey's death or the collapse of the Savings and Loan. "Amsterdam" is filled with dark humor, and a lesson that men of good conscience had best follow it. However, though "Amsterdam" won the Booker Prize and "Atonement" did not, I still believe "Atonement" is the far greater achievement.

In response to a prior reviewer, a book about "silly, conceited people" is not necessarily a silly and conceited book; consider The Great Gatsby. Amsterdam is a clever book that reveals the conflicts of people who have either found or placed themselves in moral dilemmas. The central characters share the common denominator of having been lovers of Molly Lane who has recently died. They are brought together at her funeral, and as the story unfolds she seems to have been the only true and trustworthy moral compass among them. The book causes the reader to contemplate our contemporary values. What have our morals and ethics become at the end of the 20th century? Consider the "integrity" of our political "leaders"; the media's right to know vs. an individual's right to privacy; the value of human life vs. modern medical science. The characters in Amsterdam come across as opportunistic, self-centered, and morally indecisive. Do we feel more sympathy for Vernon,the editor who must publish something scandalous to keep his paper afloat or for Julian, the politician whose private indiscretion is made public? Do we feel any sympathy at all? Even Clive the successful composer is corrupted and looks away because he believes his musical genius is more important than another human being. (echoes of Wilhelm Furtwangler?) Is it more important to save the Mona Lisa, a timeless work of art, or a transient human life? Today's politicians take polls first to determine which decision or action will most likely keep them in power. Amsterdam considers all of these issues in less than 200 pages and concludes in a deliciously wicked ending

In response to the prior reviewer, a book about "silly, conceited people" is not necessarily a silly and conceited book; consider The Great Gatsby. Amsterdam is a clever book that reveals the conflicts of people who have either found or placed themselves in moral dilemmas. The central characters share the common denominator of having been lovers of Molly Lane who has recently died. They are brought together at her funeral, and as the story unfolds she seems to have been the only true and trustworthy moral compass among them. The book causes the reader to contemplate our contemporary values. What have our morals and ethics become at the end of the 20th century? Consider the "integrity" of our political "leaders"; the media's right to know vs. an individual's right to privacy; the value of human life vs. modern medical science. The characters in Amsterdam come across as opportunistic, self-centered, and morally indecisive. Do we feel more sympathy for Vernon,the editor who must publish something scandalous to keep his paper afloat or for Julian, the politician whose private indiscretion is made public? Do we feel any sympathy at all? Even Clive the successful composer is corrupted and looks away because he believes his musical genius is more important than another human being. (echoes of Wilhelm Furtwangler?) Is it more important to save the Mona Lisa, a timeless work of art, or a transient human life? Today's politicians take polls first to determine which decision or action will most likely keep them in power. Amsterdam considers all of these issues in less than 200 pages and concludes in a deliciously wicked ending.