Amsterdam is a
1998 novelThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
by British writer
Ian McEwanIan Russell McEwan, CBE, FRSA, FRSL, is a Booker Prize-winning English novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:McEwan was born in Aldershot, the son of Rose Lilian Violet and David McEwan. He spent much of his childhood in East Asia, Germany and North Africa, where his father, a Scottish army...
. It is a morality tale revolving around a newspaper editor and a composer. McEwan was awarded the Booker Prize for the novel.
Plot summary
The book begins with the funeral of Molly Lane. Guests at the funeral include the Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, newspaper editor Vernon Halliday, and eminent composer Clive Linley. These three share certain attributes: each has a very high opinion of himself, each was at some time Molly's lover, and each regards the dead woman's husband George with a mixture of amusement and contempt. Clive and Vernon muse upon Molly's death. It seems she had some kind of rapid-onset brain disease (not specified) that left her helpless and mad. Neither man can understand her attraction to Julian Garmony, the right-wing Foreign Secretary who is about to challenge the Leadership.
Clive returns home to continue work on his symphony. He has been commissioned to write a piece for the forthcoming millennium and much of the work is complete, all save the crucial signature melody. He resolves to go walking in the
Lake DistrictThe Lake District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains , and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets.The central and...
, as this tends to inspire him.
Vernon is the editor of a newspaper whose readership is falling. He is trying to change the content of the paper to be more sensationalist. George, Molly's husband, gives him a golden opportunity, but he and Clive argue furiously about the moral responsibility of the act.
However, in the Lake District, Clive faces a difficult moral decision himself. He chooses to walk away from a potentially dangerous situation he could have helped with, because his elusive melody, the crucial notes, have arisen and he has to get them down. Instead of helping, he crouches unseen besides a rock and writes his music. This has repercussions that will change his life.
During the course of the book Clive and Vernon become mortal enemies bent on exacting revenge. The consequences of their decisions, and a pact made between them, lead them both to
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
where the novel's
dénouementIn literature, a dénouement consists of a series of events that follow the climax of a drama or narrative, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader...
plays out.
Resources
- Ian McEwan, Amsterdam, Anchor Books, November 1999. ISBN 978-0-385-49424-3.