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The Light of Amsterdam
'Subtle, understated, not without a hint of menace and always courageous ... An important book' Irish Times'Marvellously compelling ... Park takes that most difficult of subjects - recent history - and with graceful integrity explores the difficulties involved in coming to terms with the legacies of the past ... beautifully described in Park's crystalline prose' Daily MailIt is December in Belfast, Christmas is approaching and three sets of people are about to make their way to Amsterdam.Alan, a university art teacher, goes on a pilgrimage to the city of his youth with troubled teenage son Jack; middle-aged couple Marion and Richard take a break from running their garden centre to celebrate Marion's birthday; and Karen, a single mother struggling to make ends meet, joins her daughter's hen party.As these people brush against each other in the squares, museums and parks of Amsterdam, their lives are transfigured as they encounter the complexities of love in a city that challenges what has gone before.
385 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2012
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April 10, 2018
”she was . . . afraid that if she spoke her voice would betray her nervousness, the sensation of everything falling away.”
“this journey was a requiem. Like so many other things that he had held on to too long, he would let it go and try to step into the future, if not with enthusiasm then with less of his instinctive reluctance and fear.”
“nothing . . . could ever be gauged or bound in a fixity of time. . . . something was always hidden, always camouflaged so that the centre couldn’t be fully known or commandeered, couldn’t be set in stone, [and was] always changing.”
“he remembered the night from childhood when they had shone their torches across the back gardens [. They] had no fluent coded message but . . . every flickering stutter broke the silent bonds of loneliness.”
In The Light of Amsterdam , David Park explores the losses and challenges of middle age through three different characters who are unknown to each other. He introduces them and their circumstances just before each catches the same Friday flight from Belfast to Amsterdam, then follows them in that city as they come to terms with their individual situations. The novel ends with the characters’ return to Belfast after a weekend away, by which time transformative experiences will have occurred, and two of the three will have some acquaintance with each other.
Alan, an instructor at an art college, is in his early 50s. Things aren’t going well for him on the work front. His colleague, Stan Stenson—once a friend and now a paper-shuffling administrator, a sorter of “useless, bureaucratic flotsam and jetsam”—calls him into his office one day to remind him that education is no longer a “secret garden” but a service industry subject to measurement, analysis, and accountability. According to Stan, there have been complaints: old-school Alan isn’t spending enough time nurturing students and is too dismissive of their creative efforts. Furthermore, he’s had nothing published of late, nor has he held a show for years. Perhaps not surprisingly, matters are even worse in Alan’s personal life. After an impulsive sexual encounter so brief and so meaningless to him that it barely qualifies as a one-night stand or fling, he has recently divorced from his wife of many years and is living alone in an unsatisfactory flat above a flower shop.
As the novel opens, Alan is asked by his ex-wife to take charge of their troubled 16-year-old son on the weekend she plans to fly to Spain with her new lover—the inflated, insufferable Gordon. Their son, Jack, with his dyed-black hair and equally dark clothes and mood, has been having problems at school. He’s taken to self-harm (cutting) and speaks in monosyllables. With earbuds perpetually in place to ensure a steady feed of death metal which can insulate him against parental censure, Jack has apparently opted for the infuriating role of selective mute. As the party apparently singlehandedly responsible for the demise of the marriage, Alan cannot refuse his wife’s request to take their son for the weekend. He adjusts his long-standing plans to travel to Amsterdam to see Bob Dylan in concert to include his son, by purchasing costly second airline and concert tickets for Jack. It remains to be seen if the boy will condescend to speak to Alan over this weekend in Amsterdam, never mind attend a concert given by an aged rock legend.
Karen, unlike the other solidly middle-class characters in the novel, has struggled to earn enough money to support herself and her child. Three-months into her teenaged pregnancy, Karen had been abandoned by her boyfriend. Now in her early 40s, she has worked two jobs—cleaning offices and a nursing home—for years. She singlehandedly raised her daughter, scrimping and saving—with no support, financial or otherwise, from her child’s father— and has kept the girl outfitted and accessorized. Perhaps that was a mistake, Karen now realizes, for Shannon is self-absorbed, “value[s] nothing but appearances”, and is oblivious to her mother’s sacrifices. Shannon is about to be married, and, as if the wedding isn’t expense enough, there is a hen party in Amsterdam, which Karen has been pressed into attending. The journey is the first Karen will ever make by airplane, a prospect that terrifies her. Once in Amsterdam, she will be “shaken by the realisation that there was part of her own child that was unknown and secretive”, that Shannon is possessed of “an independent life” to which her mother is “only allowed partial access.”
Marion is the eldest of Park’s three central characters. Likely in her early sixties, she and Richard, her husband, have operated a successful gardening centre for many years. Of late, Marion has observed and been unsettled by what she regards her still handsome and charming husband’s flirtatiousness with the attractive young Polish women who work at the plant nursery. Richard has also recently given Marion the pricey gift of a membership at an upscale fitness club. This has only confirmed her sense of inadequacy. It seems that Richard is trying to tell her that she’s let herself go. Always aware of her plainness, she feels she is no longer “enough” for him. Both will be surprised by what they learn during their weekend in Amsterdam.
Slightly elegiac and melancholic in tone, The Light of Amsterdam is a beautiful, quietly written book that focuses on the changes of midlife. The youthful dreams have fallen away, painful errors have been made, but the capacity to change and the ability to appreciate the beauty of life and their imperfect connections with other people remain. The epigraph with which E.M Forster began Howards End could be equally well applied here.
Thanks to my Goodreads friend, Mary Lou, for alerting to me to the works of this author. I hope to read more by David Park.
“this journey was a requiem. Like so many other things that he had held on to too long, he would let it go and try to step into the future, if not with enthusiasm then with less of his instinctive reluctance and fear.”
“nothing . . . could ever be gauged or bound in a fixity of time. . . . something was always hidden, always camouflaged so that the centre couldn’t be fully known or commandeered, couldn’t be set in stone, [and was] always changing.”
“he remembered the night from childhood when they had shone their torches across the back gardens [. They] had no fluent coded message but . . . every flickering stutter broke the silent bonds of loneliness.”
In The Light of Amsterdam , David Park explores the losses and challenges of middle age through three different characters who are unknown to each other. He introduces them and their circumstances just before each catches the same Friday flight from Belfast to Amsterdam, then follows them in that city as they come to terms with their individual situations. The novel ends with the characters’ return to Belfast after a weekend away, by which time transformative experiences will have occurred, and two of the three will have some acquaintance with each other.
Alan, an instructor at an art college, is in his early 50s. Things aren’t going well for him on the work front. His colleague, Stan Stenson—once a friend and now a paper-shuffling administrator, a sorter of “useless, bureaucratic flotsam and jetsam”—calls him into his office one day to remind him that education is no longer a “secret garden” but a service industry subject to measurement, analysis, and accountability. According to Stan, there have been complaints: old-school Alan isn’t spending enough time nurturing students and is too dismissive of their creative efforts. Furthermore, he’s had nothing published of late, nor has he held a show for years. Perhaps not surprisingly, matters are even worse in Alan’s personal life. After an impulsive sexual encounter so brief and so meaningless to him that it barely qualifies as a one-night stand or fling, he has recently divorced from his wife of many years and is living alone in an unsatisfactory flat above a flower shop.
As the novel opens, Alan is asked by his ex-wife to take charge of their troubled 16-year-old son on the weekend she plans to fly to Spain with her new lover—the inflated, insufferable Gordon. Their son, Jack, with his dyed-black hair and equally dark clothes and mood, has been having problems at school. He’s taken to self-harm (cutting) and speaks in monosyllables. With earbuds perpetually in place to ensure a steady feed of death metal which can insulate him against parental censure, Jack has apparently opted for the infuriating role of selective mute. As the party apparently singlehandedly responsible for the demise of the marriage, Alan cannot refuse his wife’s request to take their son for the weekend. He adjusts his long-standing plans to travel to Amsterdam to see Bob Dylan in concert to include his son, by purchasing costly second airline and concert tickets for Jack. It remains to be seen if the boy will condescend to speak to Alan over this weekend in Amsterdam, never mind attend a concert given by an aged rock legend.
Karen, unlike the other solidly middle-class characters in the novel, has struggled to earn enough money to support herself and her child. Three-months into her teenaged pregnancy, Karen had been abandoned by her boyfriend. Now in her early 40s, she has worked two jobs—cleaning offices and a nursing home—for years. She singlehandedly raised her daughter, scrimping and saving—with no support, financial or otherwise, from her child’s father— and has kept the girl outfitted and accessorized. Perhaps that was a mistake, Karen now realizes, for Shannon is self-absorbed, “value[s] nothing but appearances”, and is oblivious to her mother’s sacrifices. Shannon is about to be married, and, as if the wedding isn’t expense enough, there is a hen party in Amsterdam, which Karen has been pressed into attending. The journey is the first Karen will ever make by airplane, a prospect that terrifies her. Once in Amsterdam, she will be “shaken by the realisation that there was part of her own child that was unknown and secretive”, that Shannon is possessed of “an independent life” to which her mother is “only allowed partial access.”
Marion is the eldest of Park’s three central characters. Likely in her early sixties, she and Richard, her husband, have operated a successful gardening centre for many years. Of late, Marion has observed and been unsettled by what she regards her still handsome and charming husband’s flirtatiousness with the attractive young Polish women who work at the plant nursery. Richard has also recently given Marion the pricey gift of a membership at an upscale fitness club. This has only confirmed her sense of inadequacy. It seems that Richard is trying to tell her that she’s let herself go. Always aware of her plainness, she feels she is no longer “enough” for him. Both will be surprised by what they learn during their weekend in Amsterdam.
Slightly elegiac and melancholic in tone, The Light of Amsterdam is a beautiful, quietly written book that focuses on the changes of midlife. The youthful dreams have fallen away, painful errors have been made, but the capacity to change and the ability to appreciate the beauty of life and their imperfect connections with other people remain. The epigraph with which E.M Forster began Howards End could be equally well applied here.
Thanks to my Goodreads friend, Mary Lou, for alerting to me to the works of this author. I hope to read more by David Park.
May 29, 2013
Here is the entire plot of the book:
[SPOILER ALERT]
Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst BIG Angst More Angst Angst Angst muddled ending
[End SPOILER ALERT]
That said, it was, for the first two thirds of the book, a compelling read. The prose is beautiful, almost poetic, the characters, though living breathing clichés are, at least, living and breathing, and the situation—also familiar—are portrayed with wit and skill and come across as gut-wrenchingly real.
The characters are a single mother, a middle aged wife and a divorced 50-something male, all bound up in terminal introspection and all going on a weekend trip to Amsterdam with a person who, if not the sole cause of their angst, at least helps to ratchet it up a few more notches.
But as I said, it was a good read. I gave it 3 stars for two very particular—and personal—reasons; reasons that might make another reviewer give it 5 stars.
First, it did go on. The lyrical prose, after a few hundred pages, couldn’t hide the fact that not a lot was happening, and that moving the characters from A to B was taking an awful long time and involved an awful lot of angst. (Did I mention there was angst in the book?)
The other reason is the ending. I won’t give it away but if you want to be surprised by the literary device I’d look away now.
After dragging these characters through the angst-mill and wringing every ounce of hope out of them and dangling happiness, not just out of their reach, but miles away on the other side of a brick wall, you’d think the author might leave his characters a sliver of light, a thread of optimism, anything but the absolute certainly of yet more angst. He tantalizingly hints at the vague possibility of a slim chance at the lottery draw for a small amount of moderate happiness, but at the last minute (literally) throws a huge curve ball—from out nowhere—that leaves the ending, not simply hopeless, but completely muddled.
I felt cheated by this. It seemed out of place, as if he tacked the final page on to show how literary a literary book can be. However, it did not strike me as clever and it merely left me confused and, more to the point, not at all eager to read another one of his books.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst Angst BIG Angst More Angst Angst Angst muddled ending
[End SPOILER ALERT]
That said, it was, for the first two thirds of the book, a compelling read. The prose is beautiful, almost poetic, the characters, though living breathing clichés are, at least, living and breathing, and the situation—also familiar—are portrayed with wit and skill and come across as gut-wrenchingly real.
The characters are a single mother, a middle aged wife and a divorced 50-something male, all bound up in terminal introspection and all going on a weekend trip to Amsterdam with a person who, if not the sole cause of their angst, at least helps to ratchet it up a few more notches.
But as I said, it was a good read. I gave it 3 stars for two very particular—and personal—reasons; reasons that might make another reviewer give it 5 stars.
First, it did go on. The lyrical prose, after a few hundred pages, couldn’t hide the fact that not a lot was happening, and that moving the characters from A to B was taking an awful long time and involved an awful lot of angst. (Did I mention there was angst in the book?)
The other reason is the ending. I won’t give it away but if you want to be surprised by the literary device I’d look away now.
After dragging these characters through the angst-mill and wringing every ounce of hope out of them and dangling happiness, not just out of their reach, but miles away on the other side of a brick wall, you’d think the author might leave his characters a sliver of light, a thread of optimism, anything but the absolute certainly of yet more angst. He tantalizingly hints at the vague possibility of a slim chance at the lottery draw for a small amount of moderate happiness, but at the last minute (literally) throws a huge curve ball—from out nowhere—that leaves the ending, not simply hopeless, but completely muddled.
I felt cheated by this. It seemed out of place, as if he tacked the final page on to show how literary a literary book can be. However, it did not strike me as clever and it merely left me confused and, more to the point, not at all eager to read another one of his books.
September 29, 2014
The book is set in Amsterdam just before Christmas. For me, the part of the book leading up to the various characters preparing to go to Amsterdam was just scene-setting. the book really begins once they arrive. This section of the book portrayed the loveliness of the city, and many of the descriptions were beautifully written. One of the 3 featured characters is involved in a hen party, and this custom is very unappealing to me. I don't see the appeal of a group of women dressing in ridiculous costumes and drinking themselves into a stupor. This is not a custom in the US - thank goodness. I have to add, at the risk of being labeled "politically correct", that a group of Irish women dressing up as "Indian squaws" and "whooping war cries" would make many Americans cringe. Perhaps that was the authors point and he wanted to portray this hen party as really, really crass. The ending leaves the reader wondering, which I think is often a good way to finish a novel.
January 12, 2020
Not going to waste any more time on this book by writing a review
April 27, 2018
The Inner City
This book attracted me on a personal level, since it concerns a bunch of people from Belfast (my birthplace) flying for a weekend to Amsterdam, a city that is dear to my heart. In my day, about the only place you could fly to from Belfast was London, but in recent years easyJet has been offering cheap direct flights to several European cities, thus making them accessible to people who do not often travel. I doubt that David Park's novel will be adopted by the City of Amsterdam for publicity purposes any time soon, for the visitors' encounter with the town is at first a matter of fast food, cheap hotels, and non-stop drinking. But the city eventually works its magic, to produce moments of real beauty near the end.
A quote from The Guardian on the back of the book says "Park excels at examining the covert thought-processes of the secret self." Absolutely correct: this is an internal book, focusing on desires, excuses, and regrets much more than action or dialogue. The first hundred pages are heavy going, because all Park's travelers are unhappy people. We have Alan, a washed-up painter and art-school lecturer, lamenting his recent divorce brought about by a single act of his own stupidity; he has tickets to hear a farewell concert by Bob Dylan, but is squeezed into taking his disaffected sixteen-year-old son along with him. We have Karen, an unmarried mother who works as a cleaner in a retirement home, roped in to join her daughter's riotous hen party. And we have Marion, devastated by the confidence-sapping effects of menopause, and convinced that her husband of many years (and her partner in prosperous garden center) no longer loves her. It is not the physical cities of Belfast or Amsterdam that matter here (although Park gets the details very much right), but the cluttered inner city of these three people's minds, and whether the trip can open up new vistas and let in some light.
Shakespeare perfected a kind of comedy (for example in As You Like It or A Midsummer Night's Dream) in which characters escape some intolerable situation in the real world to enter some magic place in which everything gets sorted out. Park is clearly writing in the same tradition, but his proportions are different. It is a disadvantage, I think, that the magic takes so long to take hold, though each character will have at least one epiphany that is quietly moving. They will also begin to cross paths and tentatively reach out to one another. Park also differs from Shakespeare in avoiding neat happy endings, and in this I wholeheartedly applaud him. There is understanding there, acceptance, and even hope, but Park leaves us in no doubt that these are only the first steps in a longer journey. But it is a journey I would be interested in taking with them, much more than I ever thought when that plane took off for Amsterdam.
This book attracted me on a personal level, since it concerns a bunch of people from Belfast (my birthplace) flying for a weekend to Amsterdam, a city that is dear to my heart. In my day, about the only place you could fly to from Belfast was London, but in recent years easyJet has been offering cheap direct flights to several European cities, thus making them accessible to people who do not often travel. I doubt that David Park's novel will be adopted by the City of Amsterdam for publicity purposes any time soon, for the visitors' encounter with the town is at first a matter of fast food, cheap hotels, and non-stop drinking. But the city eventually works its magic, to produce moments of real beauty near the end.
A quote from The Guardian on the back of the book says "Park excels at examining the covert thought-processes of the secret self." Absolutely correct: this is an internal book, focusing on desires, excuses, and regrets much more than action or dialogue. The first hundred pages are heavy going, because all Park's travelers are unhappy people. We have Alan, a washed-up painter and art-school lecturer, lamenting his recent divorce brought about by a single act of his own stupidity; he has tickets to hear a farewell concert by Bob Dylan, but is squeezed into taking his disaffected sixteen-year-old son along with him. We have Karen, an unmarried mother who works as a cleaner in a retirement home, roped in to join her daughter's riotous hen party. And we have Marion, devastated by the confidence-sapping effects of menopause, and convinced that her husband of many years (and her partner in prosperous garden center) no longer loves her. It is not the physical cities of Belfast or Amsterdam that matter here (although Park gets the details very much right), but the cluttered inner city of these three people's minds, and whether the trip can open up new vistas and let in some light.
Shakespeare perfected a kind of comedy (for example in As You Like It or A Midsummer Night's Dream) in which characters escape some intolerable situation in the real world to enter some magic place in which everything gets sorted out. Park is clearly writing in the same tradition, but his proportions are different. It is a disadvantage, I think, that the magic takes so long to take hold, though each character will have at least one epiphany that is quietly moving. They will also begin to cross paths and tentatively reach out to one another. Park also differs from Shakespeare in avoiding neat happy endings, and in this I wholeheartedly applaud him. There is understanding there, acceptance, and even hope, but Park leaves us in no doubt that these are only the first steps in a longer journey. But it is a journey I would be interested in taking with them, much more than I ever thought when that plane took off for Amsterdam.
March 2, 2013
I liked this book, but I have mixed feelings about how it ended. First, the ending seemed too abrupt. Second, at first I was a little upset that the ending left so many questions unanswered. But, as I thought about it, I became more comfortable with that. It's a pretty unsparing book: not bleak in any way, but certainly the author spares his characters no uncomfortable feelings or painful decisions. So I guess it's right that, in the end, the reader should not get easy answers either. Finally, the way the book ended indicated that the main theme was not what I thought it was. All the way through, I felt the book was about three people who had failed to ask enough of life and who - on a trip to Amsterdam, a city with a reputation for freedom and even licentiousness - learned or remembered how to expect a little more. But the ending made it clear that the main theme was how far we will go for love. Of course, a book can be "about" more than one thing, and different readers can take away different points. But I was a little disoriented by that. Still, overall, I really loved this book. I especially liked that two of the three interwoven stories were about parents of ungrateful, surly children, something that anyone who has ever raised a teenager can identify with. There isn't much literature that deals with the relationships between parents and young-adult children, which is kind of surprising given how fraught with drama such relationships can be. This book dealt with that theme very honestly and very well.
unfinished
January 9, 2018I got to page 32. This is the second time I’ve been seduced by Park’s amazing-sounding plots – the blurb for this one and
The Poets’ Wives
are ever so appealing – but ended up unable to engage with them. Here, not one of the characters caught my attention. Park’s writing is interesting, but a bit belabored: there are more words and images there than you really need to make the point (e.g. “The solace he tried to take in his intellectual superiority was thinning in spiteful synchronicity with the thinning of his hair” and “in this game, intensity or passion were the illegitimate children of commitment”).
April 22, 2018
Three strangers from Ireland travel from Ireland to Amsterdam for a get away weekend. Each of the three struggle with their own communication and relationship problems with a loved family member. The weekend away for each of the three seems to help bring some clarity to them as to how their relationships will proceed. Solid 3 stars...
June 4, 2012
David Park is a well established author of literary fiction from the North of Ireland, who deserves to be better known than he currently is at present. For instance, he seems to lack an entry in Wikipedia, something which I may attempt to remedy in the near future! The Light of Amsterdam is his 8th novel, published by Bloomsbury to generally good reviews. It starts and finishes in Belfast, but the bulk of the events occur over a weekend in Amsterdam.
The Light of Amsterdam follows the interacting stories of three pairs of characters who travel for a weekend away. Alan is a College lecturer in Art who has recently separated from his wife. His career is failing and he has lost his enthusiasm for his subject and for life. He is planning a trip on his own to Amsterdam to see Bob Dylan in concert, attempting to capture the spirit of an earlier visit at a formative stage in his life. His ex-wife, however, also has plans, and he finds that he has to take his teenage Goth son Jack with him. He thinks that this may allow him an opportunity to break down some of the barriers that marital breakdown and adolescence have caused in their relationship, but it is unlikely that the trip will be an easy one.
Karen is a working class single mother heading to Amsterdam for her daughter Shannon’s hen party. She has worked incredibly hard all of her life in a series of menial jobs to provide for Shannon, but has a burgeoning sense that her daughter takes her for granted and is not a very nice person. She has never been abroad before and is anxious about every aspect of the trip and worried about her future.
The third couple, Richard and Marion, own a Garden Centre and are travelling to Amsterdam for a weekend break. Marion is acutely aware of the ageing process and worried that she is becoming dangerously unattractive to her husband. Each of them has a secret objective for the trip, and both are in for a considerable surprise.
During the course of the novel, the characters bump into each other at different stages of the trip, interacting in a range of ways. Most are concerned in different ways with ageing and the sense that their lives are running out of time and opportunity, but an impression is left that providing they make an effort there is still time for them to reinvent themselves. The writing is strong, the characters interesting and the plot generally convincing, at times a little predictable but also with some surprises. I know both Belfast and Amsterdam well, and both places are conjured up with considerable conviction. The Light of Amsterdam is a gentle book, but with an edge. For me, the ending jars a little with what has gone earlier, but the characters will linger in my memory. Not an outstanding or groundbreaking book, but a worthwhile read.
The Light of Amsterdam follows the interacting stories of three pairs of characters who travel for a weekend away. Alan is a College lecturer in Art who has recently separated from his wife. His career is failing and he has lost his enthusiasm for his subject and for life. He is planning a trip on his own to Amsterdam to see Bob Dylan in concert, attempting to capture the spirit of an earlier visit at a formative stage in his life. His ex-wife, however, also has plans, and he finds that he has to take his teenage Goth son Jack with him. He thinks that this may allow him an opportunity to break down some of the barriers that marital breakdown and adolescence have caused in their relationship, but it is unlikely that the trip will be an easy one.
Karen is a working class single mother heading to Amsterdam for her daughter Shannon’s hen party. She has worked incredibly hard all of her life in a series of menial jobs to provide for Shannon, but has a burgeoning sense that her daughter takes her for granted and is not a very nice person. She has never been abroad before and is anxious about every aspect of the trip and worried about her future.
The third couple, Richard and Marion, own a Garden Centre and are travelling to Amsterdam for a weekend break. Marion is acutely aware of the ageing process and worried that she is becoming dangerously unattractive to her husband. Each of them has a secret objective for the trip, and both are in for a considerable surprise.
During the course of the novel, the characters bump into each other at different stages of the trip, interacting in a range of ways. Most are concerned in different ways with ageing and the sense that their lives are running out of time and opportunity, but an impression is left that providing they make an effort there is still time for them to reinvent themselves. The writing is strong, the characters interesting and the plot generally convincing, at times a little predictable but also with some surprises. I know both Belfast and Amsterdam well, and both places are conjured up with considerable conviction. The Light of Amsterdam is a gentle book, but with an edge. For me, the ending jars a little with what has gone earlier, but the characters will linger in my memory. Not an outstanding or groundbreaking book, but a worthwhile read.
February 27, 2018
Hostile teenagers, selfish adult offspring, thankless parental responsibilities and marital disappointments - any of this sound familiar? If so, you will relate to this sympathetically-drawn portrait of three people on a weekend trip with their families to Amsterdam. Variously regretting the life choices they have made, they begin to see their creaky relationships in a new light, from the fresh perspective of this foreign city.
Reviewed on www.whichbook.net
Reviewed on www.whichbook.net
March 4, 2025
A gorgeous book! Great characters drawn from varying ages and circumstance, the story is full of warmth and insight. Loved it!
August 2, 2023
Not the best fiction read. Honestly, there are many areas could have made the book more interesting.
October 24, 2012
I really wanted to read this book because it’s about people going to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is my city and I love her! There are three main characters in the book: Alan, Karen and Marion. Alan is an art teacher and goes to Amsterdam to see Bob Dylan in concert and he takes his son with him. Karen is single mom who works in a care home. She goes to Amsterdam because of her daughter’s hen party. Marion is a middle-aged woman who’s going to visit Amsterdam with her husband. These are all ordinary people with their own reasons to visit Amsterdam.
First of all I think the author did a great job with describing Amsterdam as a city. I really like reading about people visiting Amsterdam, it’s really funny to see the city from a foreign perspective. But my problem with the book was that I disliked all the characters and their stories were kind of boring. In the first chapters we get to meet the main characters and they all had something I really disliked. With Alan it was his infidelity, Karen stole something from an elderly woman and Marion had no backbone. It’s really hard to make a good story when you start with this kind of characters. And the secondary characters weren’t much better. The book wasn’t awful but I’m glad I’m done with it.
First of all I think the author did a great job with describing Amsterdam as a city. I really like reading about people visiting Amsterdam, it’s really funny to see the city from a foreign perspective. But my problem with the book was that I disliked all the characters and their stories were kind of boring. In the first chapters we get to meet the main characters and they all had something I really disliked. With Alan it was his infidelity, Karen stole something from an elderly woman and Marion had no backbone. It’s really hard to make a good story when you start with this kind of characters. And the secondary characters weren’t much better. The book wasn’t awful but I’m glad I’m done with it.
March 13, 2014
What an AMAZING writer!!!! Best novel I've read in ages.David Parks must have been sitting in Belfast brewing this marvelous "inner" story for years! It is so well crafted I didn't want to put it down. Exactly my sort of book--lots of inner workings to characters--hopes, dreams, thoughts and fears. Add to that a character just written for actor Robert Bathurst to play in movie version, and you have a winner all around. Nice too that no one is a lithe 20-something hopping in and out of beds with other lithe 20-somethings. A father (Bathurst-ready character) experiencing, on the surface, a Dylan concert, a mother and daughter doing a boozy British pre-wedding "Hen Party," a long-married couple on a getaway--all have their world's rocked without bombs being thrown or war breaking out. This is a book not to be missed. I will certainly be buying a copy and re-reading this one for years to come. The Light of Amsterdam: A Novel by David Park
September 4, 2012
Although not particularly well known, David Park should be. The Light of Amsterdam is a simple story of three main characters from Northern Ireland who spend a weekend in Amsterdam. He describes his characters beautifully and his dialogue rings true. His writing draws you into the stories and you're left wanting more at the (unresolved) ending. The exchanges between father and estranged teenage son, mother and daughter on the latter's hen weekend, and a couple who have haven't talked enough and are trying to reach each other again are brilliantly and convincingly written.
The poignancy at the heart of each of the stories will catch your heart.
Look out for The Truth Commissioner - a very different, but equally fine book.
The poignancy at the heart of each of the stories will catch your heart.
Look out for The Truth Commissioner - a very different, but equally fine book.
November 7, 2012
David who? you may ask but I can honestly tell you that David Park should be ,in some not so distant future, a worthy winner of a booker or orange prize! Park takes ordinary people...people like you and me living with hopes and aspirations, worries and problems, and weaves a wonderful and colourful story.The prose and style of writing is magnificent, you will be seduced and amazed from the very first page. All that you need to know about The Light of Amsterdam is that it is a story of three couples who go for a weekend in Amsterdam and what unfolds. I loved it and so will you whether man or woman....so do yourself a favour and accept an invitation to meet and greet the great David Park!!
September 22, 2013
This man should be better known. As usual, Park explores impaired masculinity; the parent-child relationship and the insecure heart. In this tale of intertwining characters, I particularly enjoyed the exploration of a mother-daughter relationship. Once again, Park, through the character of the mother, looks at the hunger for fulfilment that an uneducated life can bring. This is daring writing, in many ways.
August 15, 2018
I chose this book to bring with me to my 5 day trip to Amsterdam. I always love to read something which takes place in the same place I'm visiting and this was the perfect choice. It tells the stories of three people who, for different reasons, are spending a weekend in this wonderful city, and how their lives are entwined while at the same time so different. It isn't light reading - it travels deep into each character and invites us to journey into ourselves as well. A must read!
December 11, 2013
The Light of Amsterdam è un romanzo che ho richiesto molto tempo fa su NetGalley, e adesso mi dispiace molto non averlo letto quando l'ho ricevuto (ovvero prima della pubblicazione) perché mi sarebbe piaciuto fargli un po' di pubblicità. Certo, posso sempre rimediare ora.
http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...
http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...
December 31, 2018
Perhaps I'm being a little stingy with the stars, as I really did like this book and was tempted to give it 4 stars out of 5. The writing was wonderful, especially after you get over some of the overly-metaphoric descriptions early on in the story.
David Park tells a tale of middle-aged angst, as the lives of three 50-something characters from Belfast gently intersect during a weekend trip to Amsterdam. I am of that same age group and love the city of Amsterdam, where my Dutch ancestors resided, so the story resounded with me. I found the inner struggles of the middle-aged, life-questioning characters were totally relatable.
Alan is recently divorced and struggling in both his career as an art college instructor and his role of father of a troubled teenage son. He hopes that a weekend in Amsterdam, a favorite haunt of his youth, along with his son may bring new focus to their relationship and his own path. Karen is a hard-working single mom of a somewhat spoiled and entitled daughter who drags her mother to her much -anticipated hen party in the Dutch city. She begins to realize that all of the love and focus she has heaped on her daughter may not be repaid in the ways she expected. Marion and Richard are a successful couple who run a garden business, but Marion is struggling to redefine her role in work and marriage as life begins to slow down, they age and face retirement.
As I mentioned earlier, the prose is quite good. The book flows well and immerses you in the feelings of the characters. The narrative point of view switches back and forth between the three protagonists, but Park does a good job of retaining each character's distinctive voice, enabling you to recognize the shifts easily. All of the characters have tiny moments of middle-aged epiphany, as vague and muddled as these often are. However, in the end we are left with perhaps too much vagueness and lack of resolution, and although that may be the sense that Park wants to leave us with--the muddling through of life and all its confusions and unexpected twists to which we react as best we can--it left me with a sense that there could have been just a bit more to get out of the novel.
Overall, I was quite impressed and have definitely added Park to my future reading list.
David Park tells a tale of middle-aged angst, as the lives of three 50-something characters from Belfast gently intersect during a weekend trip to Amsterdam. I am of that same age group and love the city of Amsterdam, where my Dutch ancestors resided, so the story resounded with me. I found the inner struggles of the middle-aged, life-questioning characters were totally relatable.
Alan is recently divorced and struggling in both his career as an art college instructor and his role of father of a troubled teenage son. He hopes that a weekend in Amsterdam, a favorite haunt of his youth, along with his son may bring new focus to their relationship and his own path. Karen is a hard-working single mom of a somewhat spoiled and entitled daughter who drags her mother to her much -anticipated hen party in the Dutch city. She begins to realize that all of the love and focus she has heaped on her daughter may not be repaid in the ways she expected. Marion and Richard are a successful couple who run a garden business, but Marion is struggling to redefine her role in work and marriage as life begins to slow down, they age and face retirement.
As I mentioned earlier, the prose is quite good. The book flows well and immerses you in the feelings of the characters. The narrative point of view switches back and forth between the three protagonists, but Park does a good job of retaining each character's distinctive voice, enabling you to recognize the shifts easily. All of the characters have tiny moments of middle-aged epiphany, as vague and muddled as these often are. However, in the end we are left with perhaps too much vagueness and lack of resolution, and although that may be the sense that Park wants to leave us with--the muddling through of life and all its confusions and unexpected twists to which we react as best we can--it left me with a sense that there could have been just a bit more to get out of the novel.
Overall, I was quite impressed and have definitely added Park to my future reading list.
May 24, 2022
3 stories of betrayal, past, present and potentially future. I had a struggle getting through the first 5 chapters , they were quite long and it frustrated me that we weren't told at the start of each chapter who we were reading about, especially in the beginning with such new characters. However when they got to Amsterdam things started hotting up. Alan's struggles seem to reflect what we hear quite frequently when someone has a fling, it was a one off, he wasn't in his right mind and it would never happen again. Problem being the betrayal happened, the trust was lost and his wife said it's over. He lost her trust and that of his children, especially Joe, This trip is his way of trying to build bridges with Joe which have been long destroyed. But has Joe turned the tables completely and betrayed his father when they are stopped at the airport at the end of the book, well that's for you to decide.
Marion and Richard I found to be a strange couple. Be it their age or stage in their lives and marriage. Marion being quite convinced that Richard was going to have a fling with one of their young workers, and the fact that it was distinctly possible by his behaviour that he would have taken the chance, some men of a certain age do not like getting older and need to prove to themselves that they've still got it, whatever it may be. However, he never counted on his wife possibly reading his mind and deciding to take matters into her own hands and hiring him a prostitute for the night, now that really was a shocker for us and him both. Possibly a bigger shock for him as he realises that his wife could see where things were headed and had stepped in ahead of time to derail it. It quite possibly was what was needed to remind him of what he could potentially be losing, unlike Alan who only realised afterwards how much he had to loose.
Friday
me
Book Club
Morning ladies Apologies, my head being totally like a sieve at the moment, I forgot about Oisin's work placement this morning so I'm going to miss book club today. I was really looking forward
12 May
me, Shelley 2
(no subject)
Inbox
Wonderful, Stephanie. I can still see the picture of your wee sunflowers amongst the other sunflowers. Thanks for showing it to us. Best wishes Shelley On Thu, 12 May 2022 at 12:26, Stephanie O'
12 May
Zofia, me 3
FW: REF: ONSX01LI02 Stephanie O'Neill - Let Property Insurance Policy - Renewal Due 19....
Inbox
Hi Stephanie, Thank you for your email. I have now renewed the policy for you for 2022-2023. Please be advised if you would like to pay by direct debit, you will essentially pay more as I will have to
8 May
Eden, me, Mail 5
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Recipient inbox full Your message couldn't be delivered to tiernan.ton@gmail.com. Their inbox is full, or it's getting too much mail right now. LEARN MORE The response was: 452 4.2.2 The email
4 May
Carer, me 3
**SPACES AVAILABLE - Photography course for carers - 4 weeks - commencing Monday 9 May ...
Inbox
Hi Stephanie Absolutely! That's your space confirmed. I will be in touch tomorrow with a meeting point J Best wishes Gillian From: Stephanie O'Neill Sent: 04
4 May
me, Kiely 7
Ballymena Support Group
Inbox
Brilliant, thank you! On Wed, 4 May 2022, 10:56 Kiely Lawlor, wrote: At the minute we only have the big bucket label stickers, I had sent some to you last week, but I
4 May
me, Philip 2
Autism NI Donation
Inbox
Stephanie, You are most welcome. As I had explained to your colleague on Saturday, it was money I had raised from a while back. I had incorrectly told her it was from the Belfast marathon....it was
4 May
me
Garden Tea Party
Dear Sir/Madam I would like to thank you for the invitation to the Garden Tea Party at Glenarm Castle on Sunday 8th May 2022. I would be delighted to attend with another of our Volunteers on behalf of
28 Apr
Kiely, me 2
(no subject)
Inbox
Thanks Kiely On Thu, 28 Apr 2022, 16:50 Kiely Lawlor, wrote: Hi Steph as chatted about 😊 Thanks again for all your support Kiely Lawlor Support Group Co-ordinator
27 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2022, 18:30 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
26 Apr
Carer, me 3
Antrim Carer Walking Group - Wednesday 27 April at 10am - details attached
Hi Stephanie, sorry to hear about your friend. That's no problem thanks for letting us know, I will let Claire/Gillian know. Many thanks Jillian From: Stephanie O'Neill
25 Apr
me, Carer 3
My Story
Inbox
You're welcome Claire. Thank you. Stephanie On Mon, 25 Apr 2022, 14:52 Hub, Carer, wrote: Thank you so much Stephanie – as always the carer story is
25 Apr
me, Kiely 4
Ballymena Support Group Fundraising
Inbox
Hi Steph, I have attached a risk assessment for the fundraising this weekend. Make any amendments you feel needed. There is sign in sheets on the drop box or do you need me to send more? I posted the
20 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022, 18:22 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
20 Apr
me, Advice 2
Private Landlord Advice
Inbox
Good Morning Stephanie, Apologies for the late response, we were closed last week for Easter. I am going to give you the number for Housing Rights as they have specialist advisers regarding Housing
18 Apr
Henry, me 3
Carer’s hats
Inbox
I know Stephanie. Coordinating time and inspiration is a challenge! 🤣 But you seem to manage it well and have no reason to be so critical of your work. I think we probably are all far too hard on
13 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022, 18:31 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
12 Apr
Kiely, me 2
(no subject)
Inbox
That's great Kiely, thanks for that. Happy Easter to you. Stephanie On Tue, 12 Apr 2022, 12:41 Kiely Lawlor, wrote: HI Steph, I have attached a risk assessment for
8 Apr
me
Love for Life
Dear Sir I wish to confirm that my daughter, Dara O'Neill of class 9 Knockore will be attending the presentation in Tuesday 12th April. She has the £5 with her to give to her form teacher today.
7 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2022, 18:32 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
stef1973oneill@gmail.com
Book Club

Stephanie O'Neill
to Hub,, Shelley
4 days ago
Details
Morning ladies
Apologies, my head being totally like a sieve at the moment, I forgot about Oisin's work placement this morning so I'm going to miss book club today. I was really looking forward to it as well.
My thoughts very briefly on The Light of Amsterdam. It was most definitely 3 stories of betrayal, past, present and potentially future. I had a struggle getting through the first 5 chapters , they were quite long and it frustrated me that we weren't told at the start of each chapter who we were reading about, especially in the beginning with such new characters. However when they got to Amsterdam things started hotting up. Alan's struggles seem to reflect what we hear quite frequently when someone has a fling, it was a one off, he wasn't in his right mind and it would never happen again. Problem being the betrayal happened, the trust was lost and his wife said it's over. He lost her trust and that of his children, especially Joe, This trip is his way of trying to build bridges with Joe which have been long destroyed. But has Joe turned the tables completely and betrayed his father when they are stopped at the airport at the end of the book, well that's for you to decide.
Marion and Richard I found to be a strange couple. Be it their age or stage in their lives and marriage. Marion being quite convinced that Richard was going to have a fling with one of their young workers, and the fact that it was distinctly possible by his behaviour that he would have taken the chance, some men of a certain age do not like getting older and need to prove to themselves that they've still got it, whatever it may be. However, he never counted on his wife possibly reading his mind and deciding to take matters into her own hands and hiring him a prostitute for the night, now that really was a shocker for us and him both. Possibly a bigger shock for him as he realises that his wife could see where things were headed and had stepped in ahead of time to derail it. It quite possibly was what was needed to remind him of what he could potentially be losing, unlike Alan who only realised afterwards how much he had to loose.
Karen and her daughter. Well all I can say is poor Karen, betrayed as a young woman by the man she loved and left pregnant with no support to bring up her daughter, who quite clearly was her life. But sometimes you find in life that trying to give your children everything that you think they deserve and that you never had means you raise a self centred spoiled little princess. I was actually very angry when I learned that little Miss Princess Perfect had been seeing the father (the one who walked away before she was born and never contributed to her upbringing or towards this colossal wedding). Not only was she having him walk her up the aisle, but he was giving her £20k into the bargain. Who was buying who here?? But Karen has once again been betrayed and this time by the one person she probably thought would protect her at all costs. Taking into account the accusation that she stole the bracelet, which she didn't, but I totally can understand why when she did find it she kept it, at the end of the day who would ever know that she did. It went the whole way to Amsterdam and her daughter will never be in the company of the folk from the nursing home. And if the daughter is as superficial as I think she is, she'll probably sell it anyway.
Marion and Richard I found to be a strange couple. Be it their age or stage in their lives and marriage. Marion being quite convinced that Richard was going to have a fling with one of their young workers, and the fact that it was distinctly possible by his behaviour that he would have taken the chance, some men of a certain age do not like getting older and need to prove to themselves that they've still got it, whatever it may be. However, he never counted on his wife possibly reading his mind and deciding to take matters into her own hands and hiring him a prostitute for the night, now that really was a shocker for us and him both. Possibly a bigger shock for him as he realises that his wife could see where things were headed and had stepped in ahead of time to derail it. It quite possibly was what was needed to remind him of what he could potentially be losing, unlike Alan who only realised afterwards how much he had to loose.
Friday
me
Book Club
Morning ladies Apologies, my head being totally like a sieve at the moment, I forgot about Oisin's work placement this morning so I'm going to miss book club today. I was really looking forward
12 May
me, Shelley 2
(no subject)
Inbox
Wonderful, Stephanie. I can still see the picture of your wee sunflowers amongst the other sunflowers. Thanks for showing it to us. Best wishes Shelley On Thu, 12 May 2022 at 12:26, Stephanie O'
12 May
Zofia, me 3
FW: REF: ONSX01LI02 Stephanie O'Neill - Let Property Insurance Policy - Renewal Due 19....
Inbox
Hi Stephanie, Thank you for your email. I have now renewed the policy for you for 2022-2023. Please be advised if you would like to pay by direct debit, you will essentially pay more as I will have to
8 May
Eden, me, Mail 5
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Recipient inbox full Your message couldn't be delivered to tiernan.ton@gmail.com. Their inbox is full, or it's getting too much mail right now. LEARN MORE The response was: 452 4.2.2 The email
4 May
Carer, me 3
**SPACES AVAILABLE - Photography course for carers - 4 weeks - commencing Monday 9 May ...
Inbox
Hi Stephanie Absolutely! That's your space confirmed. I will be in touch tomorrow with a meeting point J Best wishes Gillian From: Stephanie O'Neill Sent: 04
4 May
me, Kiely 7
Ballymena Support Group
Inbox
Brilliant, thank you! On Wed, 4 May 2022, 10:56 Kiely Lawlor, wrote: At the minute we only have the big bucket label stickers, I had sent some to you last week, but I
4 May
me, Philip 2
Autism NI Donation
Inbox
Stephanie, You are most welcome. As I had explained to your colleague on Saturday, it was money I had raised from a while back. I had incorrectly told her it was from the Belfast marathon....it was
4 May
me
Garden Tea Party
Dear Sir/Madam I would like to thank you for the invitation to the Garden Tea Party at Glenarm Castle on Sunday 8th May 2022. I would be delighted to attend with another of our Volunteers on behalf of
28 Apr
Kiely, me 2
(no subject)
Inbox
Thanks Kiely On Thu, 28 Apr 2022, 16:50 Kiely Lawlor, wrote: Hi Steph as chatted about 😊 Thanks again for all your support Kiely Lawlor Support Group Co-ordinator
27 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2022, 18:30 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
26 Apr
Carer, me 3
Antrim Carer Walking Group - Wednesday 27 April at 10am - details attached
Hi Stephanie, sorry to hear about your friend. That's no problem thanks for letting us know, I will let Claire/Gillian know. Many thanks Jillian From: Stephanie O'Neill
25 Apr
me, Carer 3
My Story
Inbox
You're welcome Claire. Thank you. Stephanie On Mon, 25 Apr 2022, 14:52 Hub, Carer, wrote: Thank you so much Stephanie – as always the carer story is
25 Apr
me, Kiely 4
Ballymena Support Group Fundraising
Inbox
Hi Steph, I have attached a risk assessment for the fundraising this weekend. Make any amendments you feel needed. There is sign in sheets on the drop box or do you need me to send more? I posted the
20 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022, 18:22 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
20 Apr
me, Advice 2
Private Landlord Advice
Inbox
Good Morning Stephanie, Apologies for the late response, we were closed last week for Easter. I am going to give you the number for Housing Rights as they have specialist advisers regarding Housing
18 Apr
Henry, me 3
Carer’s hats
Inbox
I know Stephanie. Coordinating time and inspiration is a challenge! 🤣 But you seem to manage it well and have no reason to be so critical of your work. I think we probably are all far too hard on
13 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022, 18:31 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
12 Apr
Kiely, me 2
(no subject)
Inbox
That's great Kiely, thanks for that. Happy Easter to you. Stephanie On Tue, 12 Apr 2022, 12:41 Kiely Lawlor, wrote: HI Steph, I have attached a risk assessment for
8 Apr
me
Love for Life
Dear Sir I wish to confirm that my daughter, Dara O'Neill of class 9 Knockore will be attending the presentation in Tuesday 12th April. She has the £5 with her to give to her form teacher today.
7 Apr
Eden, me 2
Lesson Notes
Inbox
Forwarded message From: Eden Armstrong via My Music Staff Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2022, 18:32 Subject: Lesson Notes To: Stephanie O'Neill <
stef1973oneill@gmail.com
Book Club

Stephanie O'Neill
to Hub,, Shelley
4 days ago
Details
Morning ladies
Apologies, my head being totally like a sieve at the moment, I forgot about Oisin's work placement this morning so I'm going to miss book club today. I was really looking forward to it as well.
My thoughts very briefly on The Light of Amsterdam. It was most definitely 3 stories of betrayal, past, present and potentially future. I had a struggle getting through the first 5 chapters , they were quite long and it frustrated me that we weren't told at the start of each chapter who we were reading about, especially in the beginning with such new characters. However when they got to Amsterdam things started hotting up. Alan's struggles seem to reflect what we hear quite frequently when someone has a fling, it was a one off, he wasn't in his right mind and it would never happen again. Problem being the betrayal happened, the trust was lost and his wife said it's over. He lost her trust and that of his children, especially Joe, This trip is his way of trying to build bridges with Joe which have been long destroyed. But has Joe turned the tables completely and betrayed his father when they are stopped at the airport at the end of the book, well that's for you to decide.
Marion and Richard I found to be a strange couple. Be it their age or stage in their lives and marriage. Marion being quite convinced that Richard was going to have a fling with one of their young workers, and the fact that it was distinctly possible by his behaviour that he would have taken the chance, some men of a certain age do not like getting older and need to prove to themselves that they've still got it, whatever it may be. However, he never counted on his wife possibly reading his mind and deciding to take matters into her own hands and hiring him a prostitute for the night, now that really was a shocker for us and him both. Possibly a bigger shock for him as he realises that his wife could see where things were headed and had stepped in ahead of time to derail it. It quite possibly was what was needed to remind him of what he could potentially be losing, unlike Alan who only realised afterwards how much he had to loose.
Karen and her daughter. Well all I can say is poor Karen, betrayed as a young woman by the man she loved and left pregnant with no support to bring up her daughter, who quite clearly was her life. But sometimes you find in life that trying to give your children everything that you think they deserve and that you never had means you raise a self centred spoiled little princess. I was actually very angry when I learned that little Miss Princess Perfect had been seeing the father (the one who walked away before she was born and never contributed to her upbringing or towards this colossal wedding). Not only was she having him walk her up the aisle, but he was giving her £20k into the bargain. Who was buying who here?? But Karen has once again been betrayed and this time by the one person she probably thought would protect her at all costs. Taking into account the accusation that she stole the bracelet, which she didn't, but I totally can understand why when she did find it she kept it, at the end of the day who would ever know that she did. It went the whole way to Amsterdam and her daughter will never be in the company of the folk from the nursing home. And if the daughter is as superficial as I think she is, she'll probably sell it anyway.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2016
This is a not altogether nice look at the inner lives of the three featured characters. There’s Alan, who cheated on his wife and now finds himself having to entertain his sixteen year old son during a weekend in Amsterdam. Karen is a single mother who’s sacrificed a lot to give her daughter everything she wanted only to be faced with what she considers the ultimate betrayal by that daughter. Marion is a middle aged woman with doubts about her husband’s loyalty who decides to take rather drastic (and I might add overly dramatic) action to deal with the situation. Because we see events through their eyes only, are living in their heads, and hearing only their thoughts, we are confronted with the inherent selfishness we’re probably all guilty off but prefer not to acknowledge. On more than one occasion I found myself thinking ‘you’re just not that nice’ only to realise that I might well have reacted in the same way and thought the same thoughts when faced with the situation that character found themselves in.
Reading this at times brutally honest book about the shortcomings all of us have in common made me realise that I do prefer it when stories portray people in a somewhat idolised fashion—the way we ought to behave and think rather than the way we all too often do. Something else that felt very realistic and yet threw me at times were the repetitions in what people thought, sometimes showing up as complete and literal repetitions of sentences that had been used before. While I completely agree that our thoughts often run in circles and are repetitive, it’s not something I can read without thinking ‘you could have phrased that differently this time’.
I’m feeling somewhat ambiguous about this book. On the one hand the issues the three main characters are struggling with aren’t earth-shattering—quite the opposite in fact. I mean the fast majority of teenagers are withdrawn and sulky, regardless of whether or not their parents are still together. Most children will want to meet and get to know the parent who abandoned them before they were born, given half a chance just as most relationships will become less sexually active over time. So part of me was constantly thinking ‘get over it already, neither you nor your situation is anything special’. On the other hand, it was the fact that David Parks managed to convincingly portray how those run of the mill concerns can mess with our heads and our lives that really impressed me. And I think he is spot on when he portrays the loneliness we can feel even while surrounded by thousands of others and spending time with those we’re supposed to be close to and comfortable with.
The fabulous and entirely accurate descriptions of Amsterdam in this book delighted me. The author has either been there or did a fabulous job researching the city because I always knew exactly where in Amsterdam his characters were. Even if I had hated the story (which I didn’t) that sense of being in the city where I was born and grew up was fantastic.
Overall this was a very well written book that managed to captivate me despite the fact that I kept on losing my patience with the characters.
Reading this at times brutally honest book about the shortcomings all of us have in common made me realise that I do prefer it when stories portray people in a somewhat idolised fashion—the way we ought to behave and think rather than the way we all too often do. Something else that felt very realistic and yet threw me at times were the repetitions in what people thought, sometimes showing up as complete and literal repetitions of sentences that had been used before. While I completely agree that our thoughts often run in circles and are repetitive, it’s not something I can read without thinking ‘you could have phrased that differently this time’.
I’m feeling somewhat ambiguous about this book. On the one hand the issues the three main characters are struggling with aren’t earth-shattering—quite the opposite in fact. I mean the fast majority of teenagers are withdrawn and sulky, regardless of whether or not their parents are still together. Most children will want to meet and get to know the parent who abandoned them before they were born, given half a chance just as most relationships will become less sexually active over time. So part of me was constantly thinking ‘get over it already, neither you nor your situation is anything special’. On the other hand, it was the fact that David Parks managed to convincingly portray how those run of the mill concerns can mess with our heads and our lives that really impressed me. And I think he is spot on when he portrays the loneliness we can feel even while surrounded by thousands of others and spending time with those we’re supposed to be close to and comfortable with.
The fabulous and entirely accurate descriptions of Amsterdam in this book delighted me. The author has either been there or did a fabulous job researching the city because I always knew exactly where in Amsterdam his characters were. Even if I had hated the story (which I didn’t) that sense of being in the city where I was born and grew up was fantastic.
Overall this was a very well written book that managed to captivate me despite the fact that I kept on losing my patience with the characters.
March 4, 2014
This book started out nicely. It was reminiscent of a Maeve Binchey novel where there are separate groups of people who keep running into each other. In this book the three groups are all from Belfast taking a week-end trip to Amsterdam. First of all, that's just plain exciting. Wouldn't it be great if you could travel to another country for the week-end? The three groups are a middle-aged couple looking for more oomph in their relationship, a woman joining her daughter on a hen party and an art professor taking his son to an Bob Dylan concert.
The mother of the daughter having a hen party was quite intriguing person in the beginning. She was 39 which is quite young to have a daughter getting married. She is a hard worker who has sacrificed a great deal to raise the daughter. I was intrigued because we don't have hen parties per se in America. They are bachlorette parties and I don't know of any where the girls all get dressed up in costumes like this one where they dressed like Indians. The character does something completely out of character at the nursing home she works at and I really couldn't fathom her reasoning. Then her daughter confides a secret and her reaction, to me, is completely out of bounds.
The father and son are trying to create a new relationship after the parents divorced. The son is a typical, uncommunicative teen and leaves the father groping to find common ground. I feel the story has been told many times.
The last story of the married couple almost made me quit the book. The wife does something that I bet that no woman her age would do. It made me think that it was the author's, a male, fantasy. I found it stupid and unlikely. It really put me off. The wife then takes a stand about the business they run together. She won't sell any more black Christmas trees. I can't imagine a black tree and agree it's probably tacky but as a metaphor for their relationship, I just don't get it. She draws certain lines in the sand that are so absurdly easy to comply with that it makes you wonder why they were lines at all.
I enjoyed Amsterdam coming alive and some of the characters. The women characters were quite unbelievable to me. I think they were just male imaging and not really how women think at all. This poor characterization ruined the book for me and I had to drop the rating. The resemblance to Maeve Binchey ends almost at the start. Maeve could write great women characters and none of them would have acted like these two women did.
The mother of the daughter having a hen party was quite intriguing person in the beginning. She was 39 which is quite young to have a daughter getting married. She is a hard worker who has sacrificed a great deal to raise the daughter. I was intrigued because we don't have hen parties per se in America. They are bachlorette parties and I don't know of any where the girls all get dressed up in costumes like this one where they dressed like Indians. The character does something completely out of character at the nursing home she works at and I really couldn't fathom her reasoning. Then her daughter confides a secret and her reaction, to me, is completely out of bounds.
The father and son are trying to create a new relationship after the parents divorced. The son is a typical, uncommunicative teen and leaves the father groping to find common ground. I feel the story has been told many times.
The last story of the married couple almost made me quit the book. The wife does something that I bet that no woman her age would do. It made me think that it was the author's, a male, fantasy. I found it stupid and unlikely. It really put me off. The wife then takes a stand about the business they run together. She won't sell any more black Christmas trees. I can't imagine a black tree and agree it's probably tacky but as a metaphor for their relationship, I just don't get it. She draws certain lines in the sand that are so absurdly easy to comply with that it makes you wonder why they were lines at all.
I enjoyed Amsterdam coming alive and some of the characters. The women characters were quite unbelievable to me. I think they were just male imaging and not really how women think at all. This poor characterization ruined the book for me and I had to drop the rating. The resemblance to Maeve Binchey ends almost at the start. Maeve could write great women characters and none of them would have acted like these two women did.
April 19, 2013
Three families; one city; the trip that will change their lives.
If The Light of Amsterdam were made into a movie, that could be the poster. But the actual result of the book is much more subtle, which had its good and bad points.
First, the families. Alan is an art teacher in Belfast whose career has stalled and whose marriage is in trouble because he had a brief affair with a student and then confessed it to his wife, who has kicked him out and started seeing a hirsute home rehab specialist.
Karen has scraped and scrimped for years as a single mom to provide for her vain, pretty daughter Shannon, who is getting ready for her marriage.
Marion and her husband run a nursery and seasonal Christmas decorations business, and he has just bought her a gym membership at the same time he has been hiring pretty young Polish immigrants to work in their business, which makes her glass seem even more half empty than usual.
All three will head to Amsterdam: Alan to take his moody teenage son Jack to a Bob Dylan concert; Karen to go with her daughter's young friends for a "hen party" drunken blowout; Marion for a vacation getaway her husband has planned for them.
The three will intersect with each other, even if only peripherally, and all of them will undergo major turning points in their lives.
It's an excellent plot device, but part of me wanted to keep nudging this toward three stars because I felt Park, an experienced novelist, was larding his prose up with too much literary introspection, which didn't always make up for the sometimes brilliant descriptive phrases he crafted.
Still, I cared enough about these characters and what was going to happen to them to want to stay with this until the end. No spoiler alert needed her. Suffice to say that Alan has to decide what kind of man and father he will become; Karen must deal with her daughter's betrayal; and Marion, in a somewhat farfetched plot device, does something to break out of her fear of her husband leaving her that will lead to an uneasy new relationship for the two of them.
December 13, 2012
Amsterdam is one of those magical cities that everyone I know has loved when they’ve visited. Sadly, I’ve never been, so this novel about the city peaked my interest. I loved the concept for The Light of Amsterdam by award-winning Irish author David Park, so I knew I had to read it and share it with you. This is a literary work in the finest storytelling tradition. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=5095.
May 31, 2013
If you looked at a precis of this story, you could be forgiven for thinking the author is Cecilia Ahern. But this is much better. Although David Park is harsh with his characters, he burys them under deep emotional burdens with limited means of escape. This would have been 4 star except I hated the ending
January 1, 2023
I liked how there were three stories told and how two of them got intertwined. And it sets in Amsterdam, which is the reason why I bought the book in the first place. I found it interesting how the city is written through three different characters. I didn’t like the ending though. I don’t understand the ending. But overall it’s a nice book to read.
February 25, 2013
I lived the beautiful description of Amsterdam. The story of the three different family groups experiencing their trip to that beautiful city was strange. The book seemed to just end with no conclusion.
July 2, 2012
This was a little too "blah" for me. Nice moments, but overall not worth the time it took to read.
lookedinto-decidedagainst
September 10, 2016.
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