Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam is a darkly comic novel that won the Booker Prize in 1998. The novel is short (192 pages), part thriller, part psychological study, and part farce. McEwan himself described it as “rather improbable comic.” The story weaves together elements of love, friendship, personal ambition, politics, media ethics, and euthanasia. McEwan said he would spend his winnings on “something perfectly useless” rather than practical expenses like bus fares and linoleum. The award-winning novel’s polarizing nature sparked debate among critics, and if I am honest, I didn’t find it to be any more outstanding than his other novels I’ve been ticking off my reading list.  

The story is said to revolve around a euthanasia pact between two friends, Clive Linley (classical composer) and Vernon Halliday (editor for The Judge newspaper). It begins at the funeral of their mutual lover, Molly Lane, and unfolds into a tale of personal disaster as the pact supposedly influences their lives in unforeseen ways. However, I didn’t really feel like the pact was the axis about which the book revolved. For me it was more about Halliday’s dilemma over whether to publish photos taken by Molly of the right-wing Foreign Secretary, cross-dressing. This is the central pivot point in my eyes.

Halliday faces a moral quandary when he obtains private photographs of Julian Garmony, another of Molly’s former lovers and a right-wing Foreign Secretary dressed in various female outfits and posing unashamedly for the camera. Vernon contemplates publishing these photos in his newspaper to unseat Garmony, despite opposition from the newspaper  staff who he has to work hard to win over.

Meanwhile Linley is struggling to finish a musical work to celebrate the Millenium. While on a walking retreat intended to give him inspiration to complete his symphony, Linley witnesses a woman being attacked. Instead of intervening, he chooses to focus on finishing his composition, a decision that later haunts him when he realises that the attacker had several victims and was being sought after by the police.

The friendship between Halliday and Linley is tested as they disagree over the publication of the photos. Linley opposes it on moral grounds and as a breach of trust with their dead friend, while Halliday sees it as a way of preventing the unsavory Garmony, touted as the next PM, from gaining political power. The decisions made by both Clive and Vernon lead to unforeseen consequences that climax when they meet in Amsterdam.

The novel shares thematic and stylistic connections with McEwan’s other works. For instance, McEwan employs a narrative structure that is linear but includes small revisions and loops which allow for a deeper exploration of the characters’ psychologies and the consequences of their actions – a common thread in McEwan’s writing.

Again, McEwan tackles complex moral issues, a focus for most of his other novels, where he delves into the ethical dimensions of human relationships and the choices made. Amsterdam is a good book, but I’m not sure it deserved the Booker Prize.