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May 20, 2011

K.D. rated it:

My 2nd book by Ian Russell McEwan (born 1948). I have a copy of all his 11 novels except his latest ones, On Chesil Beach and Solar. I am waiting for them to show up in my favorite second-hand books store.

Enduring Love was my first by him. I read it last year and I liked it so much that I would not want to read another of his book. I guess I was afraid I would be disappointed and considering that I have all his books, what would I do with them if I did not like the 2nd? That is possibl More...

8 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2008

will rated it:

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

Is it just me or do other people "shy away" from books that look a little too intellectual for them? I read because I enjoy it. I am at an age where I don't need to read to impress. I like a good book (and I hate a bad book) and will read anything that interests me. I am shallow enough to pick a book up because I like the picture on the front or I like the title. I occasionally read books that others have recommended but I have to know what the ot More...

3 comments like (22 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Gloria rated it:

I needed something starting with A to read for the A to Z book challenge and this has been sitting on my shelf since I went through a frenzy of buying booker shortlisted novels several years ago, back when I was still keen to impress myself and fellow commuters with my reading choices.

The books starts with a funeral of Molly Lane, a member of that happy breed of fabulous women who has a horde of ex and current lovers with all of whom she remains friends. We never learn much else abou More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2011

VivaPalestina rated it:

It's hard knowing where to start with this review, I couldn't help drawing lines of similarities between this book, and the other shadowy version of Enduring Love that remains in my mind. In both we start off with a death, in both we have the stories of a group of people brought together by a person, an incidence of death. His style while unique is similar in his books I think; and both allow us to become part of the characters minds and thoughts.

Amsterdam is a story of the four lov More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2008

Chris rated it:

I tried to read McEwan's Enduring Love, was bored by a little too much phoned-in prose, and ended up reading Amsterdam instead, because it sat on the shelf of my rental, between The Lovely Bones and a Harlequin Intrigue sampler.

In retrospect, that was about right. What the hell, Amsterdam. I read you in two days, like you were a Hardy Boys book. You are about eight pages long, and part of the thrill of reading you was glancing up and being like "I'm 25% of the way through! I'm More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 10, 2008

Kelly rated it:

I suppose my experience of reading this book can be best compared to hearing Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, then the Ninth Symphony, and then being played the Moonlight Sonata. It isn't that this book is any less deserving of praise than Atonement or Enduring Love (I shall leave it to you to figure out which one I classed as the Eroica and which one as the Ninth. :)), but I believe the purpose and the scale of those two books are on a completely different plane than Amsterdam, but intentionally so More...

20 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2009

Caitlin rated it:

Ian McEwen wrote Atonement, which I enjoyed immensely in spite of avoiding it for quite some time. Since then I have read The Comfort of Strangers (less then great – but it had it’s moments), On Chisel Beach (Horrible), and now Amsterdam. I read this immediately before The Emperor’s Children and had similar complaints about both of them in regards to unrealistic characters. Perhaps this is a trend in modern literature (as I have noticed it before), and is not failure on the author’s part but on More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 29, 2010

Alison rated it:

I'm tired of the super-twist endings and the ponderous philosophical musings on guilt and morality. I'm tired of successful, monied people in nicely renovated townhouses feeling sorry for themselves. Maybe I don't get Ian McEwan. I'm okay with that. But I'm not going to read another one of these.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 06, 2008

Jill rated it:

I enjoyed "Amsterdam," but not as much as I wanted to enjoy it. The conclusion was quite succinct and surprising, even though I knew where it was going. In my opinion, McEwan really ironed out the 'ole 1-2 punch in his later work.

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2009

David rated it:

[I "read" this in audiobook.:] When a common friend Molly Lane dies of a degenerative illness, her friends and numerous lovers reflect on her past and passing. Vern, editor a newspaper, and his old friend Clive, a composer of some reknown, deal with Molly's progress to demise in part by entering into a a pact which mandates that should either of them be stricken with an illness in which they cannot control their own destinies, the other will bring about his death as an act of euthanas More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2011

هلال rated it:

رواية جميلة أساءت لها الترجمة بشكل كبير . العمل في فصول التأليف الموسيقي جميل بحق. التقطيع الفصلي جيد. الكاتب يوازن بين الوصف والأحداث. الأصل لديه هو الأحداث لكن مع فهم نفسي عميق لكل الشخصيات. البداية جميلة. الرواية - أظن- لها اسقاطات محلية في ذلك الوقت على الوضع السياسي في انكلترا. أعجبني شبح مولي الميتة الذي يخيم على كل الأجواء فيظهر من دون أن تظهر. مولي المربكة التي لا تعرف أن ترتب غرفها تأتي لتقلب حيات الشخصيات كل على عقب. أعجبني اندفاع شخصيات ثانوية لتختم بنفسها الرواية. الرواية تعتمد على ا More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 26, 2008

Belinda rated it:

McEwan has come a long way since 1998 when "Amsterdam" was published, which really is remarkable considering that most authors would kill to have the remarkable prose style of even the early years of McEwan. But nonetheless, if you've read his later works (like I have) and then are working your way through his other works, you will discern the growth of his style.

But, onward with "Amsterdam." It's a short work, and easily a "leave me alone, I'm going to read More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2008

Darren rated it:

I've read three books by McEwan now - this one, "The Innocent," and "Atonement" - and although "Amsterdam" isn't nearly as good as the other two, it provides a nice microcosmic explanation for why McEwan is a wonderful writer and why he's maybe the least fun wonderful writer on the planet.

"Amsterdam" has a neat little set-up - two former lovers of a woman go to her funeral, setting them on a path of reminiscence and leading them to make a death More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

I have become a full-fledged devotee of Ian McEwan. Along with Zadie Smith, he's currently my favorite writer.

It takes most of the novel for McEwan's characters to get to Amsterdam, but there are memorable chapters in London and out in the Lake District along the way. The novel is centered around a couple of friends, each of whom has been lovers and friends with Molly, who is memorialized at the beginning of the book. They then end up on opposite sides of an ethical dispute after hav More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2008

Ashlea rated it:

The premise of this book really intrigued me– two friends, having been lovers with the same woman over a period of years, now meet again at her funeral. The men are both successful and driven egoists; as the teaser for the book suggests, they engage in a pact of sorts after the lover's death, and ensuing choices present a moral dilemma for each. All of this could a great set-up for an honest questioning of career and ethics, life after a love's death...

I believe it tries for this, b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 18, 2008

Kartix rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2007

Tanja rated it:

After I put down the book, two thoughts immediately crossed my mind. These thoughts had begun to form while reading, but they remained hesitant and unfocused, and only really solidified afterwards. One was a general sense of unpleasantness mostly centered on the characters, primarily their selfish disregard for others, their inability to acknowledge their own faults while at the same time being quick to respond to perceived slights and faults in others. They were always capable of justifying th More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2007

Becky rated it:

another booker prize winner, amsterdam is a tightly constructed little novel filled with black humor and sharp satire. it begins with four men, ex-lovers of a dead woman, meeting up at her funeral. two of them, old friends, make a pact to kill each other if they become as insane as the recently deceased became toward the end of her life. that pact, unsurprisingly, has unexpected consequences as their friendship begins to spin out of control, devolving into hatred and revenge. many complain that More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2007

Beth rated it:

This is my book groups September book. This was the first book I've read by Ian McEwan.

Molly Lane has passed away and gathered at her funeral are all her ex-lovers: Clive, the composer; Vernon, the editor of a tabloid newspaper; Julian, high up in London government; as well as her husband George. Clive and Vernon, old friends make a pact that they will never let each other suffer the way that Molly suffered at the end of her life. In the next few weeks/months Clive and Vernon eac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 25, 2008

Kellie rated it:

-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? More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2008

jeremy rated it:

though mcewan is gifted with an exquisite command of language, the novel succeeds more for its moral implications than it does on account of its narrative. as with many ethical quandaries, there are often varying shades of what can quantifiably be deemed "right" or "wrong." amsterdam triumphs in unearthing these murky hues, nearly compelling the reader to unemotionally examine the multiplicity of seemingly virtuous action. the entangled relationships and conflicted loyal More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2008

Cari rated it:

this was my first book by Ian McEwan - he's been on the list for awhile. I found this book very readable, and I really enjoyed the development of the main characters. However, I didn't really buy the ending - it was an interesting plot and twist at the end but I thought it pushed the characters to far beyond the boundaries he created for them. Of note though - he describes the process of writing music (one of the main characters is a composer) very dynamically - I felt like I was in the guy's More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2011

Barbara rated it:

The book opens with two old friends who reunite at a funeral.Both had been former lovers of Molly, who has died after an inexplicable illness. Despite the fact that these men are accomplished in their own lives,for tenuous reasons,they enter into a suicide pact.The balance of this novel is devoted to their descent into their complete personal and moral undoings. The whole complexion of this story was dark and depressing.The main characters seemed unlikable and self-centered.

This is a More...

16 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2009

Laurie rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2009

Eva rated it:

Another impeccably written social satire from mcewan. I still enjoyed enduring love more.

Favorite passage - note - "he" is the composer

He had arrived, as he had intended, in the stalls above and behind the orchestra, behind the percussionists, in fact. The musicians could not see him, but he was right in view of the conductor. Giulio Bo's eyes, however, were closed. He was standing on tiptoe, craning forward, his left arm extended toward the orchestra, and with More...

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Feb 12, 2012

Rohan added it

Ian McEwan's Booker prize winning novel successfully defends his "macabre" reputation which he acquired post his two chilling works "The Cement Garden " and "The Comfort of Strangers" .While the former examined the gory effects of trauma on preadolescence and the desperate need felt by the children of the family to maintain the Status-Que;the second opened up a visible,yet oft-denied aspect of man-woman relationships .The third novel alludes to the nation which has More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Eeh rated it:

Perhaps this is too simplistic to say, but I felt that was a masterfully composed novel – the narratives were tense and on the spot, obfuscating and revealing in just enough doses so you had a taste of what was to come but not exactly how it was going to unfold. For the longest time I clung on to the hope, that little shrivel of hope so often glimpsed in the narrative of Clive and Vernon as their professional lives ascended. They twist and turn around each other, reflecting and mirroring, workin More...

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Nov 27, 2011

Ajk rated it:

For a book published in 1998, Amsterdam is remarkably out of date. Like any good O. Henry novel, it gets most of its plot push from a lack of access to cell phones. Between that, mention of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and a charming use of a post card, it's all so...Britishly quaint. Which is amusing because the 24-7'ing of the news cycle is another major point of the book.

I'm not complaining. You wouldn't complain of similar issues in a Dickens novel, so I don't see why you should h More...

0 comments like

Nov 15, 2011

Michael rated it:

This is my third Ian McEwan book and all of them are similar in that the reader won't feel a lot of empathy for any of his characters. This is not a bad thing in that it allows the story to flow inevitably towards an unexpected climax or twist where lives are destroyed because of the bad decisions and choices made by those flawed characters.
Like his other novels, Atonement and The Innocent, McEwan writes with an easy style which is almost poetic and the reader is immersed in the beautif More...

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Oct 10, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

For me, Amsterdam was a more interesting novel than Black Dogs, but not quite as interesting as Atonement. In Amsterdam, we meet two middle-aged men, best friends, who have both at one time or another dated the same woman. This woman dies and we meet them afterward, in their attempts to come to terms with her death, but more importantly with their own mortality and limits. I did enjoy both of the characters, although they were not particularly admirable nor very likeable. One criticism I hav More...

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