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    Amsterdam
    Amsterdam
    Amsterdam
    Audiobook4 hours

    Amsterdam

    Written by Ian McEwan

    Narrated by Steven Crossley

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The best-selling author of Atonement and Enduring Love, Ian McEwan is known as one of contemporary fiction's most acclaimed writers. This Booker Prizewinning novel by McEwan finds two men connecting at the funeral of their ex-lover. Distressed by how she was slowly destroyed by an illness, the two make a pact to save each other from enduring such a fate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 12, 2011
    ISBN9781461813545
    Amsterdam
    Author

    Ian McEwan

    Ian McEwan (Aldershot, Reino Unido, 1948) se licenció en Literatura Inglesa en la Universidad de Sussex y es uno de los miembros más destacados de su muy brillante generación. En Anagrama se han publicado sus dos libros de relatos, Primer amor, últimos ritos (Premio Somerset Maugham) y Entre las sábanas, las novelas El placer del viajero, Niños en el tiempo (Premio Whitbread y Premio Fémina), El inocente, Los perros negros, Amor perdurable, Amsterdam (Premio Booker), Expiación (que ha obtenido, entre otros premios, el WH Smith Literary Award, el People’s Booker y el Commonwealth Eurasia), Sábado (Premio James Tait Black), En las nubes, Chesil Beach (National Book Award), Solar (Premio Wodehouse), Operación Dulce, La ley del menor, Cáscara de nuez, Máquinas como yo, La cucaracha y Lecciones y el breve ensayo El espacio de la imaginación. McEwan ha sido galardonado con el Premio Shakespeare. Foto © Maria Teresa Slanzi.

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    Reviews for Amsterdam

    3.5/5

    2,113 ratings112 reviews

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    • 4/5
      With Amsterdam Ian McEwan creates a haunting story of friendship, betrayal & obsession. The novel centres around the friendship of Clive Linley, a famous musician, and Vernon Halliday, a major newspaper editor. As they mourn the death of their lover Molly, the reader watches them obsess over their separate vocations.Amsterdam is a short, powerful novel that shows the extremes people can go to when their obsessions are at stake. Wonderfully written, Amsterdam is a novel well worth reading.
    • 2/5
      This book was very odd. The story begins with the death of Molly. Molly who was the friend of several men, and the lover of several others even though she was married. Two of her previous lovers, Clive and Vernon, attend the funeral and pay their respects. Then they go off and continue to live their lives, but they have both been changed as a result of the loss of their mutual friend. I am still trying to figure out what the plot was. Is jealousy the main theme or friendship gone array? Is it the continuation of life after the death of someone very close? Life that follows a depressing path. I don’t have the answer to these questions. I found the writing to be a bit too wordy. I also found the ideas to be choppy and scattered. This is the first McEwan book I have read and I have to say, I am not impressed.
    • 3/5
      There are times when McEwan is just annoying. The serious gravitas mixed with the ridiculous culmination. Amsterdam is one such novel where he mixes both and you feel let down as though some trick has been performed in front of you and you are the dupe. I'm not sure why this quite slight novel should be so highly regarded. McEwan's style is effective, absorbing and entertaining, its just where he takes it that is frustrating. Amsterdam is an easy and quick enough read and there is enough there to admire but McEwan has done better work - this is a poor one to have won the Booker Prize with.
    • 5/5
      Vernon, Clive and Garmony - all past lovers of Molly. And George, her husband. Vernon and Clive are old friends, Garmony has no fans amongst any of them. Envy, spite and a desire to bring a downfall all play their = and the ultimate climax in Amsterdam.A brilliant, fascinating book, short and page-turning with an enexpected ending
    • 4/5
      This book was exciting and engaging and wonderfully descriptive almost all the way through. It was the ending that let it down. It was rushed and worse than that....I saw it coming thanks to the image on the cover of my edition. If the ending had been written longer, with more feeling, I could have really loved this book. It describes the friendship of two well-to-do London men. Both in high positions in their fields, and both formerly in love with a recently deceased woman. The two men both find themselves with a moral dilema and can only pick fault with the way the other friend acted. Their bitterness an anger with each other reaches fairly high stakes and the high drama takes place in the Amsterdam of the title.
    • 3/5
      I was not too impressed with this book. I had read Atonement in the past and thought that book was really good but this one just left me a little bit bewildered as to why it won The Booker Prize. I will, however, check out a few more of his books because I know that he is a talented writer.
    • 4/5
      Amsterdam opens at a memorial service for Molly Lane, who, as a lover, was shared by the main characters of this story: Clive, a composer of classical music; Vernon, the editor of a newspaper that's seen better days, and Julian Garmony, the current foreign secretary of the British government who probably wants to rise to become the prime minister at some point. (my apologies for this long sentence!) To each one of these people, Molly provided something that brought comfort and solace -- and now after her death, their lives seem destined to be falling apart. The story follows the lives of the two main characters, Clive and Vernon, and through them Julian as their lives intertwine and become enmeshed.I liked this book all the way up until the end at which point I almost threw it across the room. The ending is somewhat farcical and inane and I suppose if I must be honest, I felt stupid that I didn't see it coming when it's basically spelled out. I'm sorry, but it seems that this ending was a bit unworthy of this author. Hmm.I will say that McEwan's writing is, as always, exquisite, and is not to be missed. I can also recommend this book for that reason. But as far as the story goes, the Booker?
    • 3/5
      I really do enjoy the writing style of this author. I find it to be witty with a sarcastic sense of humor. However, I have a hard time getting past the sad outlook on life that the author maintains. He seems to have the ability to show the worst in people and by ending the story with a double-murder, he confirms his own negative beliefs. This was a very short novel, and I would have liked it better if he had taken more time to explore the world of the two main characters. With all of that said, I would read more from this author.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining visit to literary world. Darker chocolate than usual.
      .
    • 5/5
      The story proceeds from the cremation of a woman who died from a brain disease that left her without a sense of self. Three of her former lovers are present and there story is told. Two, a composer and newspaper editor end up being euthanized in Amsterdam. The story of the creative process both for the newspaper editor and composer make for fascinating reading. The implosion of their personalities adds a negative tone to the story.
    • 4/5
      The book opens with a funeral. Molly, a photographer, has died. She is the thread that ties the characters (her lovers or former lovers) together. George Lane is her widower. Clive Linley is a composer working on what he believes will be his masterpiece. Vernon Halliday is a liberal news editor who has come across potentially damaging photos. Julian Garmony is a conservative foreign secretary who is expected to make a run for Prime Minister.

      The first three-quarters of the narrative sets up the relationships among the characters. The author employs these characters, particularly Clive and Vernon, to explore the convergence of self-interest and ethics, and how the characters justify acting against what they purport to believe. The ending is not what I was expecting. I won't spoil it, but the entire story is definitely thought provoking.
    • 3/5
      This is an odd, but thoroughly readable book. It starts at Molly's cremation, where we meet her husband and 3 of her former lovers. Clive & Vernon are friends, one a composer the other a newspaper editor. The third love is Julian, the Foreign Secretary, whom Clive & Vernon do not like. They have stronger negative feeling for the husband, George. The story takes off when George offers Vernon some pictures of Julian, taken by Molly, that would be career ending for a politician. Clive & Vernon have very different opinions on what to do with these and you can imagine the press kerfuffle. It's a curious story, fast paced and very readable. What happens to Clive & Vernon runs the range from male friendship to betrayal to farce. It all feels very real, relationships do change and are reassessed when a key person in the relationship is no longer there - in this case Molly. But who exactly is driving events here? The last chapter implies that an individual was manipulating events, but that, I feel, might be a step too far - or an I (like others) underestimating them?
    • 4/5
      An entertaining but odd little moral fable—not quite what I'd expected after reading Atonement. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
    • 4/5
      A neat caper pacily dispatched in 5 acts, like a Shakespearean spiralling of downfall and destiny. The declines and falls of the plot along with the slightly sneering tone in the skewering of contemporary mores offer a taste of the early Evelyn Waugh. The work has its finger on the pulse of the times, but as those times are the mid-90s, it’s a period piece already. An enjoyable and easy read: precise prose, no great depth, a few arresting narratorial observations.
    • 5/5
      This story is of a friendship between two men; one a composer of music for orchestra and the other a editor of a newspaper. They are at the height of their careers. The composer is working on what he feels will be his greatest work to bring in the millennium and the other is working to keep a newspaper viable in a changing world. The book opens at a funeral for a former photographer and friend of both men. This funeral sets them to thinking of death and they both vow that they will assist the other to die before they become like the woman who has just passed on. Soon after their euthanasia pack the relationship takes a sudden turn for the worse. It's a quick read and I enjoyed it. It was written in 1998 and it won the Booker Prize that year. It examines the morals and culture of the time. Rating 4.8
    • 3/5
      Well, this one may date back to 1998 but the Booker judges surely did it again - as we've seen countless times before, right author, wrong book.Amsterdam opens with two friends and ex-lovers of the same woman meeting at her funeral. One is a successful composer, the other an editor of a British newspaper with a declining circulation. I can't bring myself to tell you the basic plot between the two as it's so preposterous I wouldn't know where to begin.I was quite excited for the first quarter of this book. It had the feeling of building up to McEwan when he's at his best, when you get that McEwan special sauce that gives you a tingling sense of foreboding. I was practically rubbing my hands with glee after having been less enthralled with my last few reads of his. And then... well, it went a little flat. Somewhere along the way there'd been a slow puncture. I didn't see it coming, but the book was gradually deflating.By the time I got to the middle it was a little stagnant, but I had my McEwan rose-tinted glasses on. "Don't worry", I told myself, "you know your buddy Ian - he'll throw a curveball right when you're least expecting it. This little so-so patch is just to catch you unawares". So, I continued on, waiting for the metaphorical Bogeyman to jump out. And out he came. But it was hardly the jump from the dark I'd been waiting for. More like he'd been standing in front of me in supermarket-esque fluorescent lighting for a good half hour in a ridiculous child's dressing up outfit before shouting 'boo' at me in a bored fashion. What I'm trying to say is that the twist was ludicrous and about as suspenseful as Trump visiting a tanning shop.McEwan's Enduring Love the year before? Utterly fabulous. Creepy, edgy, unique. OK, I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek here with Amsterdam - it wasn't the worst novel I've ever read, but it certainly wasn't up there with McEwan's best, and by the end of the novel that slow puncture had turned into a totally flat finish. It certainly wasn't worthy of being a Booker prizewinner.3 stars - I kept turning the pages OK, but in all it was a dud plot. Ian, I'm very cross with you.
    • 4/5
      An unusual story of unsympathetic characters in an unlikely storyline, but is quite satisfying nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      A tightly woven novel; a couple of selfish decisions spiral into disaster.
    • 3/5
      Two old friends meet in London at the funeral of a woman whom they both knew as a lover at different points in the past. Clive, a composer who is currently working on what he hopes will be a masterpiece symphony, and Vernon, a newspaper editor looking for the next big story, both resent the presence Julian, a right-wing politician with aspirations to become prime minister, who was also one of Molly’s lovers. When an unexpected scandal involving Julian and Molly arises, both Clive and Vernon make questionable moral decisions that lead to dire consequences for other people. The two men also enter into an inexplicable pact involving mutually agreed euthanasia, which both come to regret when their paths cross again in the city of Amsterdam.So goes the basic plot of Amsterdam, Ian McEwan’s Booker Prize-winning novel that is pitched to fall somewhere between social satire and a morality tale. Unfortunately, I found this to be an unsatisfying reading experience that did not come close to living up to its advance billing. In fact, it really seemed like more of a longish short story than a novel, particularly if the rather turgid descriptions of Clive’s creative process are stripped away from the essential story. What is left, however, is a shallow and not-too-believable tale of two unlikable and self-absorbed men who actually never do anything wrong enough (especially Clive) to merit the price they ultimately pay. Further, the supposedly clever plot twist at the end of the story—which appears to be a staple device of the author, judging by his other works that I have read—was painfully obvious by about the middle of book. Sadly, then, whatever others found to be so engaging or insightful about Amsterdam was lost on me.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful, charming Molly has just died after what seemed like a short illness (perhaps alzheimers). Previous lovers are at her funeral along with her husband, George. Clive Linley is Britain's most successful and famous composer. His best friend, Vernon Halliday is the editor of a major newspaper. Julian Garmony is the Foreign Secretary and his politics are repulsive to both Clive and Vernon. A while after the funeral, George summons Vernon and shows him some very revealing and embarrassing pictures of Julian Garmony. Vernon must make the decision to either publish these photos or not. Clive advises not upsetting Vernon's feelings that the man needs to be brought down for the sake of the country. Tension between the two friends follow as both struggle with the issue. While on a hiking trip, Clive happens to come upon a man assaulting a woman but he turns and walks the other way. As time progresses, Vernon realizes that Clive has seen a serial rapist and did nothing. Due to Molly's impairment, Clive had once asked Vernon to assist him in a suicide if his life became such that he was not in control. Vernon at first was repulsed by the idea. Amsterdam has recently been in the news for having doctors that would help with anyone wanting to kill themselves.As time progresses and the friendship dies, both Vernon and Clive make plans to get revenge on the other in Amsterdam. This isn't a long book but one that has an interesting plot and twist. All of the characters seems very self-absorbed and not particularly likeable, but still are interesting.
    • 4/5
      A quick read, this novel has some of the best passages I've seen from McEwan. He's just brilliant. It's essentially a tale of greed and self destruction. None of the characters are likable whatsoever. Although the book is may years old, I did find the moral discussions around Garmony so be extremely timely. I highly recommend this book, but do not expect anything lighthearted, humorous, or endearing.
    • 2/5
      I read this book on a Sunday afternoon in utter bliss by a roaring fire under my fur throw. I have been wanting to read Ian McEwan for a while and the marketing people did a good job on me with this one. I was drawn in by the eerily atmospheric front cover of duelling men from a bygone age and the flyleaf tempter of the story to come - a racy woman with several lovers and a funeral - perfect for this racy woman and the month of death and decay. It's a short novel so time investment is minimal and I am glad of that as for a Sunday afternoon piece of light entertainment it did a job. However, somehow I felt a little short-changed by the whole thing considering I am after all reading a Booker prize winner. There was no gasp or moment of revelation for me - knowing what we know of the world and how it works in the media and politics these days nothing came as a surprise - maybe we were a little more naive back in the late 90's about such things when the book was written. The motivation for the two main protagonists Clive and Vernon in bringing the novel to it's climax was for me far-fetched and pretty thin. Certainly a scathing commentary on the viler aspects of human nature that live within each of us during our working lives but at the end of the day - we already know that politicians and the press are a back-stabbing loathsome bunch and that the middle and so called upper middle classes of society are so full of themselves and their own importance that to them anything outside of their sphere of mememe world is irrelevant - so nothing new here and not tackled in this novel in anyway that shakes my perspective on the way it is. That said there were passages in the book which resonated with me and I wanted to carry on reading so in that it did the job of entertaining me for a while although I doubt I will be giving it much after thought as I have done with other books I have read.
    • 5/5
      A story that develops like clockwork written in an impeccable style, funny with several surprise turns. The end is somewhat disappointing at first but then the aftermath takes you by surprise again. Great read.
    • 4/5
      This book was exciting and engaging and wonderfully descriptive almost all the way through. It was the ending that let it down. It was rushed and worse than that....I saw it coming thanks to the image on the cover of my edition. If the ending had been written longer, with more feeling, I could have really loved this book. It describes the friendship of two well-to-do London men. Both in high positions in their fields, and both formerly in love with a recently deceased woman. The two men both find themselves with a moral dilema and can only pick fault with the way the other friend acted. Their bitterness an anger with each other reaches fairly high stakes and the high drama takes place in the Amsterdam of the title.
    • 3/5
      This is the second novel by Ian McEwan that I've read, and I think I may have to conclude Mr. McEwan and myself just do not get along. "Amerstardam" is what literature might be like if "Mrs. Dalloway" had never happened: there's hardly anyone in this book, who isn't wealthy, extremely accomplished, and very British. It invites comparison, of course, to "Saturday," McEwan's more obvious homage to "Daloway," which featured a successful brain surgeon who had a genius-kid blues guitarist and a prize-winning poet for kids. Clarissa Dalloway, we should remember, was neither particularly bright nor particularly accomplished, though she managed to be pretty memorable. I suspect that McEwan is positioning himself to be the favorite author of the new British ruling class, which probably gets him invited to some pretty good parties. "Amerstam" features the editor of a national British daily, a noted composer, a cabinet secretary, a photographer who'd worked for Vogue, and another prominent politician. You know, just folks. The other similarity to "Saturday" here is the fact that it seems to have an odd distrust of the written word. That book, let's remember, featured a venerable old poet getting socked right in the jaw after daring to stand up to a thug. "Amsterdam" gives us Vernon, a newspaper editor constantly at war with a faction of the staff he dismisses as "the grammarians," you know, newspaper writers who bother with the finer points of grammar and style. True, Vernon is attempting to find his fading paper's place in the new media landscape, but It's still kind of depressing, really, especially since McEwan's writing isn't bad at all. But Vernon's attitude seems to point toward the fact that McEwan, for all his use of the indirect third person, is a writer more interested in systems than people. That's not what I read novels for, though, thank you very much. There are some things to admire about "Amsterdam," beyond McEwan's prose. It features, as other reviewers have noted, a lovely account of the mechanics of artistic creation on the part of the composer, something that's surprisingly rare in fiction. And the book is, as a blurb has it "a well-oiled machine," the plot, with, as another reviewer noted, its Greek tragedy dynamics, really does lock together very nicely. And there's some dry humor here and there. But in the end, "Amsterdam" struggles to justify its existence: its seems a bit like literature for a post-literature world. And it is, at last, refreshingly brief. This thing got the Booker Prize? Heaven forfend!
    • 4/5
      So close to five stars! I really loved Amsterdam, and then the last thirty pages dropped my love to a strong like. I can't verbalize why, exactly. It seemed too, pat, too predictable, maybe. Too easy, and a then again a stretch of believably. I'm good as suspending belief in speculative fiction; I'm not sure that this is what should be happening here, though.What I loved: there was a great discussion about morality here that just struck a chord in me. I won't tell you what it is, because it could spoil a bit of the novel. But Clive's perspective on the morality of Vernon's actions as an editor really touched me. It's something I think we should think about, especially in this age of online attacks using any ammunition close at hand, collateral damage be damned.I also loved the description of Clive's composing process. This was beautiful writing, and I found myself slowing down to really taste the language. McEwan is good at that. Vernon's life as an editor was also interesting, though less appealing to me. That could be just that I identified with Clive, but not at all with Vernon. I wonder if one more extroverted than I am would be the other way around.This is the second McEwan book I've read; the first, On Chesil Beach, also involved music. But: I really didn't like it. This one was much more to my liking. I'll try at least one more McEwan novel before I decide what I think about him.
    • 2/5
      I was disapponited with this one. I thought the prose was very flat for McEwan and the plot was only mildly interesting. The best part was the insight into the process of composing, which, even then, got a little bogged down in itself.
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars.

      The setup in this book is great. Character development, situations, etc.

      But then it all wraps up too quickly. You can kind of see it coming--but it seems so absurd. But it is absurd. But how could that actually happen? Could it? McEwan's books always have somewhat out-there plots--but they are definitely things that could actually happen.

      This one though? I'm not so sure. I rarely say a book needed more length. But this one does. A bit more depth of explanation before and after the final event.
    • 3/5
      For 193 pages, this book packs a lot in. There are ebbs and flows of old friendships, division and rapprochement, political intrigue, transvestitism, muckraking journalism, and the composition of a symphony.

      The latter passages are where McEwan's literary talents are most evident; his rapturous descriptions of the labor poured into the development of that symphony are practically musical themselves.

      Unfortunately, I found the ending -- the dénouement in the titular city -- to be facile and disappointing. Not my favorite work by this author, but, to be fair, even his lesser works contain moments of literary crescendo.
    • 5/5
      Molly is dead but the lives of her ex-lovers, Composer Clive, Journalist Vernon, Politician Julian and Caregiver George are entwined and layered in emotion. Ugh! I want to say more but I fear it will give too much away.