FFWD Weekly
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| Books by FFWD Staff Amsterdam Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam tells the tale of two old friends, two dark-eyed and intellectual Brits – bitter, self-absorbed and funny as hell. We meet Millennial composer Clive Linley and left-wing newspaper editor Vernon Halliday on the lawn outside a crematorium chapel where they are gathered to mourn the death of their dear friend, Molly Lane. Clive ruminates, "He watched his own vaporized breath float off into the grey air. The temperature in central London was said to be minus eleven today. Minus eleven. There was something seriously wrong with the world for which neither God nor his absence could be blamed." The chill is palpable as the other major players are introduced – Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, and the sad, rich publisher George Lane, who was Molly’s most recent lover. Although the characters might sound a bit staid and conservative, they make for a riotous haul through London – from Clive’s lavish South Kensington flat to Vernon’s editorial office at The Judge. At its heart, Amsterdam revolves around two deftly intertwined moral dilemmas, one for Clive and one for Vernon. Molly’s death drives them to make a pact which will ultimately play itself out in Amsterdam, where Clive’s Millennial Symphony will premiere at the prestigious Amsterdam Concertgebouw. But before Clive can do that, he must make one final sojourn to the Lake District, where he’s almost sure his final variation awaits within himself to be uncovered. What he finds there is just what he had hoped to escape – other people: first an entourage of school kids, then something worse. "Whatever they were about, Clive’s immediate thought was clear as a neon sign: I am not here... whatever was happening here was bound to take its course. Their fate, his fate." But what happens just within earshot of Clive, deep within the silence of the Lake District, is something as terrible as it is common. There is a marvelous scene where Vernon arrives at The Judge and his progress down the hallways of the building resembles a repeated purgatorial circuit. Faxes, memos, copy and finally the obituary he had requested on Julian Garmony are thrust into his hands – should the old bugger "off himself." This in preparation for the Friday edition an editor waits his whole life for. What Vernon doesn’t know, the reader slowly begins to suspect. His whole life is about to take a desperate turn, toward the continent and Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a beautifully complex and humorous tale. McEwan crafts this story so smoothly and quietly that its blackish humor, when it hits, is twice as keen. He presents a sort of moral algebra which his characters must work out from within. There is something essential about the fallout of friendships, as well. Why is it that Clive and Vernon see each other’s moral error so clearly? And why go after an old friend so harshly? McEwan lets these questions settle into the fabric of a wonderful read. Lachlan Mackintosh |
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