Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

"There were dangers, of course, but only the usual ones, and mild enough – injury from a fall, getting lost, a violent change of weather, night. Managing these would restore him to a sense of control. Soon human meaning would be bleached from the rocks, the landscape would assume its beauty and draw him in; the unimaginable age of the mountains and the fine mesh of living things that lay across them would remind him that he was a part of this order and insignificant within it, and he would be set free."

I always get something to learn from the authors I have read so for. If Paulo Coehlo shows me how to write about day to day life with a touch of spirituality and presence of God in every line, then Ruskin shows me how to involve love of nature in you writing and how to portray emotions of common people. And now Ian McEwan is here to teach me how to write things meticulously, how to take care of every aspect of the surroundings so that the reader feels like he himself is present there with the characters, had same feeling while reading “Lord of the Rings” too.

Author :

Ian McEwan has written no. of novels (Atonement is the one, most people are familiar with) and almost every second of his novel has got nominated for Bookers prize and Amsterdam is the one that has won Booker Prize. But if you ask me, it fell a little short of my expectations (4 out of 5), for me its more of a discovery of author than the book. Amsterdam was born on 1998 and has a life of 193 pages. Well story could have got covered in under 100 pages but it’s the style of authors writing so meticulously and interestingly that you don’t loose interest in sections with one page for each moment.

Story :

The subject here is new, alteast for me. The story is London based and begins at the funeral of the central character of the story, Molly Lane. Out of all the major people present there, mostly her lovers, few are of distinction in her life and she has played a beautiful part in their life so they are very emotionally attached to her. Clive Linely, Vernon Halliday, Julian Garmony and Geroge Lane are the chief lovers and characters here.

Clive Linely is a well known musician and is at the verge of writing  the symphony of millennium.

Vernon Halliday, editor of a newspaper ‘The Judge’, has a news that can change the fortune of the paper and Vernon himself.

Julian Garmony, a very successful politician, currently foreign minister and so called future prime minister of UK.

George Lane, Molly’s husband, so everyone hates him. A stakeholder in Vernon’s paper and a good acquaintance.

Apart from being Molly’s lover, Clive and Vernon  are very good friends. (may be bocz’, molly belonged to them at different periods of time). They starts thinking of their own death and life and make a pact with each other that if ever one of them will fall ill like Molly, the other will kill him. There Lonliness and self talk is put into words marveluosly. Great..

No one wants that Julian should become a PM, bcoz his policies and viewpoint is not good for countries progress (a Molly’s lover, another reason). So when a chance come Vernon plans to destroy Julian through his paper and a help from George. Clive, however, differ in his viewpoint of the situation and is more interested in completing his symhony then getting involve in some  controversy(its clive’s part of the story that I really liked, how a musician composes a creation, the difficulties he faces and joy of doing something innovative.. my God only a musician can understand.. if you have something to do with music. You will surely love his part. .for others .. it can be skipped without affecting the story.).

What happens after that, whether Clive is able to create the symphony of millennium the way it should be, how he gets his inspiration.

Whether Vernon succeeds in is mission of saving the newspaper and destroying Julian.

What defenses Julian has against Vernon to save his political carrier and social life.

and  George what role he has to play in this three.. Read it yourself..

Believe me you will not be able to guess whats gonna (you wont even think that something will happen..the way of writing is such, straight) happen till the end and by the last chapter you will feel .. Ohh my God.. what is this… how it can be so.. it should be like that.. but its someone else’s story, you cant change.. :).

The way writer has written about newpaper world and music in particular, he either has great knowledge of them or he has done a good amount of home work beforehand. Wonderfull.. Music I had some idea.. but newspaper side I got a great deal of learning form this book.

My Pick :

"He knew from experience that the best he can do was relax, step back, while remaining alert and receptive. He would hve to take a long walk in the country, or even a series of long walks. He needed mountains, big skies. The lake district, perhaps. The best ideas cought him by surprise at the end of twenty miles, when his mind was elsewhere."

Wtih this beautiful thought about music let me end this review.. Comments are always welcome..

Take care and keep Writing and Smiling

Vikky Gural

PYAR HUMEIN PHIR MILAAEGA...

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The pivotal plot in ''Amsterdam'', not much critically examined by other reviewers here, is a story about two not really successful people at the midlife crisis where settling for less becomes life's main burden, both self indulgent (a musician/composer and a newspaper editor) conspire to murder each other.

They come to this unlikely idea at the end of a life long friendship because - it seems - of perceived slights although this too is not adequately charted in the novel, and both come to the same idea at the same time and select the same method.

They elect to go to Amsterdam where they find corrupt medical practitioners who agree to commit euthanasia for large sums of money paid in cash. They pull off this trick by falsely identifying themselves as the other, then switching places at the last moment, and so simultaneously kill each other.

The mechanics of this unlikely swap are not adequately explained, but in more essential ways the plot line is deeply flawed. The description of the place could not be more wrong; not that McEwan got things like street names in Amsterdam wrong. His researchers made sure of such trivial accuracy. It is his complete failure to understand the Dutch society and her institutions that ruins the book.

The Netherlands, and especially its capital, Amsterdam, is - in the minds of many native English speakers - a den in iniquity, showing how little they know about this, arch conservative and, in many ways, intolerant country. This simply could not happen. Euthanasia is strictly controlled in the Netherlands.

There is compulsory notification to the Department of Justice, independent medical examination of the dying patient by at least two physicians who must lodge their reports with the authorities, and an independent counselor must give guidance to the patient, a lawyer is appointed to wrap up the affairs of the patient taking care of final taxes and distribution of assets to the heirs, following which there is a required period for re-consideration, and an independent psychiatrist must judge that the patient is not making the decision in a desperate moment of despair or treatable depression but is fully competent and capable of making an informed decision, and a final family reconciliation in which survivors of the patient are also able to apply for and receive counseling, and then the actual day of death in which there must be certain people present as witnesses.

A sort of ritual takes place, a kind of funeral at which the dying person may be able to listen to his or her eulogies. Actually the Dutch society is drowning in rules and regulations. A more credible book would describe the adventures of people who die of old age while waiting in Kafkaesque lines, but that would not win any prizes; the suspension of action has already been done in ''Waiting For Godot''.

The story told by McEwan, at least this main subplot, could not possibly happen. It is actually the fantasy of an ignorant English author, serving his readers the jingoistic moral saber rattling that foolish people need in order to reaffirm their perceived cultural and individual superiority over the persons of a foreign country they do not understand and have no inclination to learn anything about.

The English way of committing euthanasia, in which nothing official is arranged, and decisions are made in an ad hoc manner behind closed doors, make it more likely that Dutch people would go to the UK to find corrupt doctors for such a deal; assuming that the unlikely plot could be taken with a sufficient serving of suspended disbelief by readers anywhere. Why this won the Booker Prize, I cannot fathom. It should have been Atonement, which is a likely, gripping tale.

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Excuse me - but thats not how a booker book is supposed to be written. That doesn't mean that the book is not good but it falls short on achieving the greatness of midnight's children and others of same ilk.

Talking about the book-its good in patches. The story is good but the end is too dramatic. At some places author seems to write only to add pages. But some details are simply exciting. Like the struggle of a central character while creating the music for a particular show is narrated superbly. Then also brilliant is his narration of the agony that the character is going through because of his past. Author is in his best form here .

But then somehow after reading the whole book the satisfaction is not there. The emotional thirst is not quenched and a reader feels like cheated because of raised expectations from the book-it being a booker winner and then Ian McEwan is too famous to come out with such mediocre performance.

Sometime I wonder that booker prizes are rigged otherwise how can one justify the nomination of books like 'Fasting and feasting-by Anita Desai' and then winning of Amsterdam, the coveted prize. I have come across quite better books but then they never won the accolades and acolytes that they deserve.

About reading the book-I would say, don't buy but borrow it, read it and go for a bacardi to quench your remaining thirst.

smile

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The story was different, I mean the presentation of the events of people's lives was. But I didn't find it any spectacular.

It is a story of the past lovers' of a woman and their interaction with each other and her husband after her death. The future of the main characters can be predicted once in the middle of the book, but no strong justification is provided as to why such an end is chosen.

I read a review of this book (not on MS), which said that the author's style was very funny and the book was gripping. I dont think either is the case. Though the author's style of writing was very good at places, all over the book it wasn't that scintillating.

All in all, I expected more from a Booker prize winner. May be I started with a lot of expectations and the book didn't live upto that.

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As a book-lover I always keep an eye out on exploring new authors .. new for me I mean..there is such a never-ending scope for this..

So ..my newly discovered author is 'Ian Mcewan' .. I started with 'Atonement' whose reviews I read somewhere and found interesting...and it did not disappoint me (more on this later though..)..

Lookout on more stuff by the same author led me to 'Amsterdam' ..and I picked it up..and ohh...what a pick !!

Ian McEwan at his best .. brilliant...superb .. is 'Amsterdam' !!

His style is unique..one by one he introduces you to his characters ..familiarizes you with each...and Bang - a twist in the plot !! That is really a treat for the readers !

It is not the story - but the way he has presented it..ofcourse the story supports all his twists and turns...

But .. a must read..

I dont think its fair to include the plot here .. its a fairly small book and a book-lover wont be able to put it down , once he starts anyway :-)

But if some of you feel I should narrate the plot..please let me know..and I shall try to do that too.

so..Go ..pick 'Amsterdam' and have good fun !

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