A review by nekreader
The Light of Amsterdam by David Park

3.0

If you enjoy reading for plot, this is not the book for you. If, however, you enjoy novels that unfurl primarily in the psychological ruminations of their characters, narratives that explore the commonplace sorrows and disappointments of the ordinary life at its midway point, and sentences more like this one than the first sentence of this review, you will find much here to like. The novel's structure comprises three barely intersecting stories of middle aged individuals who travel to Amsterdam with a loved one, either a child or a spouse, with whom they are struggling to define their relationship. Park creates incredibly real and movingly deep characters, true to life, but ultimately not offering much insight other than relationships are often difficult, frustrating, painful, and complicated, sometimes comforting and and even boring, I would have liked to see these three threads treated as independent short stories in the hands of a more concise writer, except, perhaps this would have stifled the emergence of the book's most compelling character, the city of Amsterdam itself.