The Innocent

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Fiction Book Review: The Innocent by Ian McEwan". www.publishersweekly.com . Retrieved 14 January 2020. No novelist, perhaps, has done so much to widen the range of English fiction. The current, almost bewildering gusto of inquiry in contemporary English writing owes an enormous amount to the example of Possession, which is the first, grandest and best example of that alluring form, the romance of the archive; the scientific fantasy of “Morpho Eugenia,” too, has proved enormously instructive to younger writers. If English writing has stopped being a matter of small relationships and delicate social blunders, and has turned its attention to the larger questions of history, art, and the life of ideas, it is largely due to the generous example of Byatt’s wide-ranging ambition. Few novelists, however, have succeeded subsequently in uniting such a daunting scope of mind with a sure grasp of the individual motivation and an unfailing tenderness; none has written so well both of Darwinian theory and the ancient, inexhaustible subject of sexual passion. While that might seem gratuitous, it ties into the theme of innocence and its loss. For some characters innocence is well and truly lost after that event. But McEwan plays, not unlike William Boyd in a Good Man in Africa, on just who the Innocent in the title is. It would appear that every character is far from it, but that turns out not to be true. Symbolism plays a significant role in Ian McEwan’s novel, The Innocent. One of the most prominent symbols in the book is the Berlin Wall, which serves as a physical and metaphorical barrier between the two main characters, Leonard and Maria. The wall represents the division between East and West, and the impossibility of their relationship. With Ian McEwan. Atonement remains one of my favorite books, but when I tried Saturday I just couldn't connect with the book. When I saw his book the Innocent, set in one of my favorite periods, the mid-Cold War, I just had to try it. The setting turns out to be relatively unimportant. This isn't really a Cold War thriller, but is a classic McEwan exploration of the inner life of a few people.

Boylan, Roger (9 January 2006). "Ian McEwan's Family Values". Boston Review . Retrieved 14 January 2020.Overall, the use of symbolism in The Innocent adds depth and complexity to the story, highlighting the themes of division, secrecy, and the loss of innocence. Style and Language Overall, while “The Innocent” may not be McEwan’s most well-known work, it is certainly a compelling and unique addition to his oeuvre. McEwan’s Writing Career

In 1976 his first collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites (1975), won the Somerset Maugham Award. A second volume of stories, In Between the Sheets, appeared in 1978. These stories - claustrophobic tales of childhood, deviant sexuality and disjointed family life - were remarkable for their formal experimentation and controlled narrative voice. After having had a love-hate relationship with Atonement and having disliked Amsterdam, I was prepared to be disappointed going into this book. But Ian McEwan threw a googly and quite comprehensively bowled me. There’s a very strong picture in your second novel, The Game, of childhood creativity, but I have the feeling that there’s an element of the smokescreen to it. It’s quite an accurate portrait of what the Brontës got up to, isn’t it? At their engagement party, Maria jokes with Leonard about his sexual innocence; however, she recognizes another, less humorous innocence: “You like anyone who’s kind to you. If Hitler buys you a drink, you say he’s a decent fellow!” His adolescent innocence creates additional turmoil during the conflict with Otto, when he is concerned more with Maria’s possible doubts about his manhood. His reactions are those of an adolescent: “Otto was her responsibility, her fault, he was hers. And she had the nerve to be angry with him, Leonard.” He begins losing his affection for her not because they kill Otto but because they cover it up. In dismantling the body, he both admires her calm expertise and is repelled by it. They have come to share not love but disgust. Leonard is worried less about killing and butchering a human being than about being caught and is concerned even less with betraying his friends and country or with misjudging and mistreating Maria. His moral innocence and his naive goodness create a morass of unfelt guilt which he transfers to suspicion about Maria and Glass. In her 1987 letter, Maria accuses him: “It was wrong of you to retreat with your anger and silence. So English! So male! If you felt betrayed you should have stood your ground and fought for what was yours.” Instead of facing the truths revealed in her letter, Leonard retreats into an adolescent fantasy of finding Maria and taking her to Berlin, of recapturing the past. L' inadeguatezza con la quale Leonard vive la prima avventura sentimentale della sua vita mi ha colpito molto. Sono ragionamenti da preadolescenti messi nella testa di un uomo adulto, un machismo gretto e becero, una supponenza nei confronti della partner che sono tanto più inquietanti quanti si è consapevoli che in ogni uomo è presente la tentazione di ragionare in questo modo. Le conseguenze non possono che essere disastrose.Many years later, Leonard had no difficulty at all recalling Maria's face. It shone for him, the way faces do in certain old paintings. In fact there was something almost two-dimensional about it; the hairline was high on the forehead, and at the other end of this long and perfect oval, the jaw was both delicate and forceful, so that when she tilted her head in a characteristic and endearing way, her face appeared as a disc, more of a plane than a sphere, such as a master artist might draw with an inspired stroke. The hair itself was peculiarly fine, like a baby's, and often wriggled free of the childish clasps women wore then. Her eyes were serious, though not mournful, and were green or grey, according to the light... McEwan says that "it was the sort of face... onto which men were likely to project their own requirements." This is a key sentence in hindsight, coupled with Leo's innocence: and a harbinger of events to come. Film adaptations of his own novels include First Love, Last Rites (1997), The Cement Garden (1993) and The Comfort of Strangers (1991), for which Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay, and Atonement (2007). Ma nonostante lo splatter, il macabro, le mani che grondano sangue (e anche la sega elettrica diventa ben rossa), a me è sembrata prima di tutto una storia d’amore. D’amore pieno di passione. Di quegli amori che sarebbero potuti (e dovuti) durare per sempre: ma il destino si è messo di traverso. Ed entrambi, sia lui che lei, sono pieni di rimpianto. Ma ormai è tardi, non si possono più incollare i lembi dilaniati del tempo.

The Innocent was acclaimed by book critics. [2] Michael Wood of the London Review of Books discussed the Gothic literary mode and wrote that "McEwan’s great gift is for getting his characters onto this level of experience by the most casual means." Wood stated that the connection between Leonard's work and personal life gets too unsubtle, but praised the precision of McEwan's portrayal of emotion, billing the novel as "a haunting investigation into the varied and troubling possibilities of knowledge.” [3] Joan Smith referred to the novel as "far and away McEwan's most mature work" and "an outstanding achievement". [2] a b c d Malcolm, David (2002). Understanding Ian McEwan. Univ of South Carolina Press. p.110. ISBN 978-1-57003-436-7. [Wood's views are] typical of the novel's reception. Additionally, “The Innocent” stands out for its use of multiple perspectives and unreliable narrators. The novel switches between the perspectives of Leonard, Maria, and Bob, each with their own motivations and secrets. This creates a sense of tension and uncertainty throughout the novel, as the reader is never quite sure who to trust. Rita Kempley in The Washington Post, on the other hand, [4] called the movie "baffling." She continued, "The acting proves as inconsistent as Schlesinger's ability to build and release suspense. In full swagger, Hopkins seems to be doing Teddy Roosevelt in preparation for the title role in Nixon. Rossellini recalls her mother, Ingrid Bergman, in an airport farewell scene that echoes Casablanca. It doesn't detract from the actress's work, but it does invite negative comparisons. Talk about amounting to a hill of beans." I wish I knew what this 1990 novel was trying to be, because as well written as the prose is, The Innocent feels all over the place. It’s a post-WWII Berlin spy novel, but it’s mostly about politics – not so much between the Russians and the west, but between Germany, the Americans, and the British. It’s also a coming-of-age story, in a way; though the protagonist is 30, he’s still a bit naïve. Finally, there are small turns in the plot that seem unlikely and then seriously improbable, and filled with unnecessarily detailed gore. Yet I have to concede that McEwan is an engaging, easy-to-read author.The Innocent is a study of the psychological, social, and political forces that converge to drive naive Leonard into duplicity without exactly corrupting his basic innocence. Because Leonard has always lived with his parents in Tottenham, he is overwhelmed by the freedom of living alone in Berlin. For the first time, he is an adult with a true identity: “He was part of a team, a sharer in a secret. He was a member of the clandestine elite…who gave the city its real purpose.” Leonard’s awkwardness, however, ensures that he will not make the most of this experience. Indeed, despite being a technician, he is ill equipped for the modern world: “He would have to use the phone, an instrument he was not easy with, despite his work. His parents did not have one, nor did any of his friends, and he rarely had to make calls at work.” He is a passive person who allows things to happen to him. Maria initiates their friendship by sending him a note in the nightclub: “The message was hardly a surprise. Now it was before him, it was more a matter of recognition for him, of accepting the inevitable. It had always been certain to start like this.” Leonard does not hesitate to tell Maria that he is a twenty-five-year-old virgin; after the brutality of Otto, such innocence is a relief for Maria. More than sex, love, or maturity, his relationship with Maria means freedom: “He felt he was throwing away his life. The abandonment was delicious.”