Amsterdam

by Ian McEwan

One cold winter day three men meet at Molly’s funeral. All of them were her ex-lovers; Vernon is a newspaper editor, Clive is a composer and Julian is an important person in London’s government. Vernon and Clive are old friends and the next day after the funeral they make a pact that they would rather kill each other, than suffer like Molly did at the end of her life. The story guides you through Clive’s and Vernon’s friendship and their moral values. Each of them will make decisions that never should have been made; their friendship will be changed forever. Julian will fight for his good reputation only to be destroyed by Vernon’s tabloid.

This was a fast read. As it usual is with McEwan I didn’t enjoy the novel in the beginning, but in the end I liked it. This was an odd story about friendship, love, jealousy, betrayal, sex, moral standards, politics and press. Everything gets twisted more and more with every page you read. This is not his best work, but worth reading anyway, especially if you are a fan of McEwan. If you can appreciate the beauty of a well written novel, you won’t be disappointed.