Point of View

Amsterdam is written in the third person from the perspective of a narrator, who is carefully observing the principal characters. The focus of the narrator's attention shifts back and forth between composer, Clive Linley and journal editor, Vernon Halliday. The objectivity and impartiality suggested by the third person perspective gives the reader the impression that the narrator is telling this moral tale at a safe distance from the characters and events, thereby lending him credibility as someone whose words are not colored by any personal stake in the manner in which the character's actions are described. As such, although the characters in the novel exchange the accusations and moral judgments, determination, of which, if any, of these moral judgments is left to the reader.

Setting

Amsterdam is set principally in England, but its plot culminates in Amsterdam. In England, euthanasia is illegal, but it is legalized...