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Book: Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Genre: Fiction
Length: 193 pp.
Progress (pages): 4,828/15,000 (32%)
Grade: B
Amazon Summary: 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 upmarket 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 be stricken with such an illness, the other will bring about his death. From this point onward we are in little doubt as to Amsterdam'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 rumors circulate he teeters on the edge of disgrace. However, this is McEwan, so it is no surprise to find that the rather unsavory Garmony comes out on top. Ian 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.
My Thoughts: In a way, I expected more from this book, after loving Atonement and Saturday, and hearing that it won the 1998 Booker Prize for fiction. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because it was a fascinating, thought-provoking novel that brought up a lot of interesting questions, but it just didn't live up to my expectations.
The plot was fascinating; going into it, I didn't expect what was going to happen at the end, which is something I appreciate in a novel. Because of the length, there weren't parts that seemed to drag on too long. The ending was confusing, but after a while, I got it, and I was shocked. That's all I'm going to say, though, because that ending is something you have to read for yourself.
The writing was gorgeous as always, flowing and vivid. McEwan is rather long-winded at times, but it adds to the novel and the tale he was trying to tell. In a way, his writing is very stream-of-consciousness, where I knew exactly what the characters are thinking. I experienced their blind anger, their frustration. I felt what the characters were feeling.
However, in this case, I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what the characters felt, because all of them were very unsavory. Clive, Vernon, Julian and George had dark sides to their personalities that came through. At the beginning, I liked Clive more than Vernon, but by the end, I disliked both of them. Admittedly, this side of their personality just showed the fact that they were human, but frankly, I just wish I had seen some of their "good" side.
In the end, I enjoyed this book, even though it wasn't as good as his other two novels. I think I'm going to pick up On Chesil Beach next; I was going to pick that one when I went to the library yesterday, but I was too tempted to pick up Amsterdam instead.
Currently Reading:
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Rick Wartzman
A lot of books to be reading at the same time, I know, but I can't control myself, I really can't.
Genre: Fiction
Length: 193 pp.
Progress (pages): 4,828/15,000 (32%)
Grade: B
Amazon Summary: 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 upmarket 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 be stricken with such an illness, the other will bring about his death. From this point onward we are in little doubt as to Amsterdam'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 rumors circulate he teeters on the edge of disgrace. However, this is McEwan, so it is no surprise to find that the rather unsavory Garmony comes out on top. Ian 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.
My Thoughts: In a way, I expected more from this book, after loving Atonement and Saturday, and hearing that it won the 1998 Booker Prize for fiction. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because it was a fascinating, thought-provoking novel that brought up a lot of interesting questions, but it just didn't live up to my expectations.
The plot was fascinating; going into it, I didn't expect what was going to happen at the end, which is something I appreciate in a novel. Because of the length, there weren't parts that seemed to drag on too long. The ending was confusing, but after a while, I got it, and I was shocked. That's all I'm going to say, though, because that ending is something you have to read for yourself.
The writing was gorgeous as always, flowing and vivid. McEwan is rather long-winded at times, but it adds to the novel and the tale he was trying to tell. In a way, his writing is very stream-of-consciousness, where I knew exactly what the characters are thinking. I experienced their blind anger, their frustration. I felt what the characters were feeling.
However, in this case, I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what the characters felt, because all of them were very unsavory. Clive, Vernon, Julian and George had dark sides to their personalities that came through. At the beginning, I liked Clive more than Vernon, but by the end, I disliked both of them. Admittedly, this side of their personality just showed the fact that they were human, but frankly, I just wish I had seen some of their "good" side.
In the end, I enjoyed this book, even though it wasn't as good as his other two novels. I think I'm going to pick up On Chesil Beach next; I was going to pick that one when I went to the library yesterday, but I was too tempted to pick up Amsterdam instead.
Currently Reading:
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Rick Wartzman
A lot of books to be reading at the same time, I know, but I can't control myself, I really can't.
