“The following day the editor presided over a sudued meeting with his senior staff. Tony Montano sat to one side, a silent observer.
“It’s time we ran more regular columns. They’re cheap, and everyone else is doing them. You know, we hire someone of low to medium intelligence, possibly female, to write about, well, nothing much. You’ve seen that sort of thing. Goes to a party and can’t remember anyone’s name. Twelve hundred words.”
“Sort of naval gazing,” Jeremy Ball suggested.
“Not quite. Gazing is too intellectual. More like naval chat.”
— Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Little story of great sadness. Four men, all deeply but differently in love with Molly Lane loose her to a debilitating illness. Her painful death makes her husband make a calculated decision that will lead to the destruction of the other three. Friendship and careers will be destroyed but the husband gets his revenge.