Amsterdam (novel)
Amsterdam is a novel by Ian McEwan that first appeared in 1998 and was published in German in 2000. The author received the Booker Prize in 1998 for this novel .
content
At the funeral of Vogue journalist and photographer Molly Lane, three of her friends meet, in whose lives the unconventional, emancipated woman has left striking marks. The forty-six-year-old's health had deteriorated rapidly through a neurological illness to the point of mental derangement, and she had been cared for in his apartment by her husband, the publisher George Lane, and increasingly isolated from all visitors until her death.
The three secretly rival former lovers are the successful composer Clive Linley, the journalist and editor-in-chief of The Judge Vernon Halliday, and Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, who seeks the post of prime minister. Clive and Vernon, who were friends from their flat share in the 1970s, both despise the widower because of his weakness towards the headstrong woman and Julian Garmony because of his xenophobic remarks.
Shaken by Molly's rapid illness, Linley and Halliday begin to ponder their own lives. Both of them are in a crisis, both professionally and privately, hidden behind a shiny facade. After two childless marriages, Clive lives lonely in his stucco villa inherited from his uncle, which was once a meeting place for many young artists. Only occasionally does he visit his girlfriend Susie Marcellan in New York. He lacks the original ideas for his honorable assignment to compose a symphony for the turn of the millennium. He is also under deadline pressure, because the famous Italian conductor Giulio Bo and the British Symphony Orchestra are already waiting for the score. Vernon is also divorced twice, now lives with his third wife Mandy and has numerous affairs. His changeable career is at a turning point again. Halliday's position is in jeopardy ("he was just the sum of all the people who listened to him, and once he was alone he was nothing") and he is looking for projects that can help his newspaper get circulation again . In this life situation, Clive and Vernon come to an agreement to organize euthanasia for the other in the event of a helpless care situation so that they do not have to languish like Molly. The editor-in-chief obtained information about appropriate medical support in Amsterdam through research by a journalist.
Molly's death has fateful consequences for the three former lovers. Her husband has found intimate photos in her estate that show Garmony in women's clothes, exposing him as a transvestite. He plays these into Halliday's hands so that he can publish them in his newspaper. The editor-in-chief comes to his big story in order to achieve the desired upswing for his newspaper on the one hand and to ruin the private life and career of the politician on the other. However, his wife Rose undermines the carefully prepared press campaign by appearing on television in which she explains her husband's inclination as a harmless playful disguise and condemns the newspaper's action as an attack on personal rights. Thereby she achieved the solidarity of the public against The Judge . Halliday has to resign as editor-in-chief. But the foreign minister's victory is short-lived. After the media excitement subsided, he too lost his position. Even before the failure, Clive advised his friend against the disclosure and advocated the protection of Molly's privacy. It is her pictures. A momentous dispute ensues that is only seemingly resolved.
To find the peace he needs to complete his symphony, Linley travels to the Lake District and on a hike to Glaramara , just as he senses an intuition for his symphony, he witnesses a heated argument between a man and a woman. Deciding not to intervene, he wanders off to a quiet place to write down his ideas. Only later does he learn from Vernon that the woman was the victim of a sex offender. When he refuses to report to the police as a witness due to lack of time, Halliday accuses him of irresponsible artistic self-centeredness and reports the incident. Clive is summoned, shows himself to be cooperative and identifies the perpetrator when confronted.
He then goes to Amsterdam, attends a rehearsal of his symphony and meets with Vernon for a feigned reconciliation. Both organize the death of the friend in parallel. At a festive reception, everyone offers the other a welcome drink in which they have mixed an anesthetic, after which they go to their beds tiredly. The euthanasia staff is already waiting there. They both think they recognize Molly in the nurses. Lane and Garmony escort the bodies to London. The ex-politician then retired to his family home in Wiltshire, while the publisher visited his long-time friend Mandy Halliday with the thought "All in all things on the front of the former lovers hadn't turned out so badly".
reception
Kerstin Schmidt writes for Deutsche Welle :
- " Amsterdam turns out to be a merciless story about the mechanisms of power and the media and about the loss of all human values."
expenditure
- Amsterdam . Novel, Anchor Books, London 1998. ISBN 978-0-385-49424-3 . (Original edition)
- Amsterdam . Roman, from the English by Hans-Christian Oeser , Diogenes, Zurich 1999. ISBN 3-257-06220-6 (German first edition)
literature
- Kerstin Schmidt: Book tip: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam . On: Deutsche Welle , August 30, 2005, online ( Memento from September 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).