Amsterdam

Amsterdam
Ian McEwan
Vintage Canada, 1999
178 pages
ISBN 978-0676972177
Recommended by: no one, really; I had read Atonement a few years ago and really enjoyed it, and this edition just had such a warm, appealing cover that I couldn't help but be drawn in.



Amsterdam is about two friends who become more and more antagonistic towards each other following the death of a mutual friend, eventually with tragic-- albeit hilarious-- consequences. I don't have much to say about it, other than it is pretty delightful; at a sprightly 178 pages, it's a nice, neat, well-drawn little package, almost a vignette, very British, very funny, bizarre enough to make me like it. Especially with so many contemporary novels being so overblown, so swollen and sprawling, a skillfully executed, restrained short novel like Amsterdam is extremely refreshing.