How does Ian McEwan use imagery in Amsterdam?

Example of Imagery:

"Clive kept on because the shrinking and apprehension were precisely the conditions - the sickness - from which he sought release, and proof that his daily grind - crouching over that piano for hours every day - had reduced him to a cringing state. He would be large again and unafraid. There was no threat here, only elemental indifference. There were dangers, of course, but only the usually ones, and mild enough - injury from a fall, getting lost, a violent change of weather, night. Managing these would restore him to a sense of control. Soon human meaning would be bleached from the rocks, the landscape would assume its beauty and draw him in; the unimaginable age of the mountains and the fine mesh of living things that lay across them would remind him that he was part of this order and insignificant within it, and he would be set free."