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andrewsutton's review against another edition
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jana_kemp's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
3.25
So gross. So so disturbing
ebokhyllami's review against another edition
2.0
Hmm... Not what I expected. Well written, but NOTHING happened?! Was looking forward to an exciting spy novel, there was a murder and lost love... Hmm.. Read it through only because of the language...
peggyd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
First read of 2024 and it was a doozy! I am generally not a McEwan fan and a friend of mine loaned me this book to "change my mind" about this. Here's the thing: I can tell that this is a well-written, tightly plotted novel with a lot of layers. And yet, it was a struggle for me. I found it easy to put down and sometimes had to force myself to pick it up. And also it gets gory. Incredibly gory in a hideously detailed way that goes on for MANY PAGES. When I tell you my stomach started to roil with those descriptions I mean it. The theme of the body in this book is truly rich and interesting but also extremely tough to work through at a certain point (if you've read this, then you KNOW).
To backtrack: this is the story of 25 year-old Leonard Malman, and British officer stationed in Berlin in 1955 on a highly classified (and true) project to tunnel to East Berlin and wiretap the Russians. Leonard is the innocent of the title--he still lives with his parents so this assignment is his first real foray into the world. He's a virgin and has no sense of himself, his views, or his emotions. Even stating he's never had a strong feeling in his life. Thus, Leonard has a lot to prove and this top secret gig enlarges his sense of self while also heightening his insecurity about how others perceive him. He runs through potential responses in conversation to try to land on what will make him seem the most worldly and confident but honestly has no idea how people see him.
Then Maria arrives. She's German, 30 years-old, and divorced. She suffered during the war and sometimes her ex comes around to take her money and beat her up. But in Leonard she finds someone she can guide in life and in the bedroom and she thinks her luck has changed. Here is where the book really shines: the bodily descriptions of being in love and discovering the secrets of your lover's body along with your own. We see this unfold and we see that Leonard is perhaps less innocent than we assumed as he discovers a desire to dominate and intimidate Maria during their most intimate encounters. It goes as you think.
When they reconcile, we think Leonard has grown out of his innocence and into a better sense of himself and Maria's needs. And then something terrible happens and everything gets peeled away: what is innocence, after all? We are all capable of awful things.
For me, the most interesting aspect of this novel is the juxtaposition of bodies in love vs bodies in violence. Both deal with intimacy, fluids, powerful emotions, and heightened awareness but with the most disparate outcomes. McEwan makes this point in minute, often hideous, detail. And indeed I had to skim several paragraphs to make it through but it's an eloquent point all the same.
Yet I never felt that I understood Leonard; did he change, grow, learn? I don't know. And after all that happens in this novel, that feels like a letdown. It all gets explained away in a postscript letter from Maria, but that doesn't enlighten the reader to Leonard's journey at all. Maybe there wasn't one. I'd like to know, though.
To backtrack: this is the story of 25 year-old Leonard Malman, and British officer stationed in Berlin in 1955 on a highly classified (and true) project to tunnel to East Berlin and wiretap the Russians. Leonard is the innocent of the title--he still lives with his parents so this assignment is his first real foray into the world. He's a virgin and has no sense of himself, his views, or his emotions. Even stating he's never had a strong feeling in his life. Thus, Leonard has a lot to prove and this top secret gig enlarges his sense of self while also heightening his insecurity about how others perceive him. He runs through potential responses in conversation to try to land on what will make him seem the most worldly and confident but honestly has no idea how people see him.
Then Maria arrives. She's German, 30 years-old, and divorced. She suffered during the war and sometimes her ex comes around to take her money and beat her up. But in Leonard she finds someone she can guide in life and in the bedroom and she thinks her luck has changed. Here is where the book really shines: the bodily descriptions of being in love and discovering the secrets of your lover's body along with your own. We see this unfold and we see that Leonard is perhaps less innocent than we assumed as he discovers a desire to dominate and intimidate Maria during their most intimate encounters. It goes as you think.
When they reconcile, we think Leonard has grown out of his innocence and into a better sense of himself and Maria's needs. And then something terrible happens and everything gets peeled away: what is innocence, after all? We are all capable of awful things.
For me, the most interesting aspect of this novel is the juxtaposition of bodies in love vs bodies in violence. Both deal with intimacy, fluids, powerful emotions, and heightened awareness but with the most disparate outcomes. McEwan makes this point in minute, often hideous, detail. And indeed I had to skim several paragraphs to make it through but it's an eloquent point all the same.
Yet I never felt that I understood Leonard; did he change, grow, learn? I don't know. And after all that happens in this novel, that feels like a letdown. It all gets explained away in a postscript letter from Maria, but that doesn't enlighten the reader to Leonard's journey at all. Maybe there wasn't one. I'd like to know, though.
hollysilsbury's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
al13ex's review against another edition
4.0
I waited for some time to read this book and now I finally had the opportunity! It was a pleasant read, I enjoyed it except for the part where things got ugly.
The story takes place during the Cold War, a time of spies and coalitions, suspicions and betrayals. The main character of the story is Leonard Marnham, a 25-year-old British man, sent to Berlin to help the Americans intercept Soviet confidential messages by building a tunnel under the city.
Besides his work which is top secret, Leonard soon gets involved in a relationship with Maria, a 30-year-old divorced German woman. She is far more experienced than he is and she fell in love with his innocence and British charm. In the beginning, their relationship is very passionate and mostly it takes place in her bed, in what was left of a tiny apartment, during winter time and under many blankets.
Spoilers ahead
Leonard will soon find out that relationships are not as easy as he thinks, especially when involved with a woman who's native country was the enemy during the war, very soon after it was finished. Their relationship changes after certain events and it somehow evolves. They begin to go out very often, have many different activities and they make their relationship public when they get engaged. Their happiness won't last long, because Maria's ex husband appears once again in her life, decided to complicate things. In a fight between the two males, the ex husband gets killed in self-defense.
The happy couple is now confronted with the terror of getting rid of the ex husband's dead body. This is the point where the personal life of Leonard gets mixed with his work. The exhaustion and the stress makes him take rash decisions. He hides the body in two suitcases he got from the Ministry of Defense and puts them under a table in the tunnel. At the same time, information about the secret tunnel gets out and becomes public. In the end we find out how things can take unexpected turns.
Leonard doesn't have any kind of experiences involving girls and he is confronted with new feelings and thoughts that scare him because he doesn't understands them. Maria teaches him and shows him how to love and to please her, charmed by his lack of knowledge and moral innocence.
Confronted with death, Leonard keeps trying to convince himself that he is innocent, that he didn't do anything bad and if having the chance, he would prove his rational thinking and logical actions.
I'm not sure of what we should learn from the characters' mistakes and it's even harder to put myself in their shoes and think what I would do. I can understand their logic, but cannot accept it morally. Could a relationship revive after such events? I believe the way things ended was the logical solution and the only possibility of normal lives for the characters.
The story takes place during the Cold War, a time of spies and coalitions, suspicions and betrayals. The main character of the story is Leonard Marnham, a 25-year-old British man, sent to Berlin to help the Americans intercept Soviet confidential messages by building a tunnel under the city.
Besides his work which is top secret, Leonard soon gets involved in a relationship with Maria, a 30-year-old divorced German woman. She is far more experienced than he is and she fell in love with his innocence and British charm. In the beginning, their relationship is very passionate and mostly it takes place in her bed, in what was left of a tiny apartment, during winter time and under many blankets.
Spoilers ahead
Leonard will soon find out that relationships are not as easy as he thinks, especially when involved with a woman who's native country was the enemy during the war, very soon after it was finished. Their relationship changes after certain events and it somehow evolves. They begin to go out very often, have many different activities and they make their relationship public when they get engaged. Their happiness won't last long, because Maria's ex husband appears once again in her life, decided to complicate things. In a fight between the two males, the ex husband gets killed in self-defense.
The happy couple is now confronted with the terror of getting rid of the ex husband's dead body. This is the point where the personal life of Leonard gets mixed with his work. The exhaustion and the stress makes him take rash decisions. He hides the body in two suitcases he got from the Ministry of Defense and puts them under a table in the tunnel. At the same time, information about the secret tunnel gets out and becomes public. In the end we find out how things can take unexpected turns.
Leonard doesn't have any kind of experiences involving girls and he is confronted with new feelings and thoughts that scare him because he doesn't understands them. Maria teaches him and shows him how to love and to please her, charmed by his lack of knowledge and moral innocence.
Confronted with death, Leonard keeps trying to convince himself that he is innocent, that he didn't do anything bad and if having the chance, he would prove his rational thinking and logical actions.
I'm not sure of what we should learn from the characters' mistakes and it's even harder to put myself in their shoes and think what I would do. I can understand their logic, but cannot accept it morally. Could a relationship revive after such events? I believe the way things ended was the logical solution and the only possibility of normal lives for the characters.
stanro's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I am enjoying this. Ian McEwan wrote The Innocent in the mid-90s, setting it in Berlin in the mid-50s.
Leonard is a British technician sent to Berlin to assist in American spying operations on the USSR forces based there. The trope of the largely passive central character being pushed and pulled by those around them is not one I find appealing. But with McEwan as author, and with the excellent narration of this audiobook, I’m enjoying it.
I savour the delicacy of Leonard’s seduction and laugh out loud at the way he seeks to avoid premature ejaculation.
Later, an American character attempts a Cockney accent and I marvel at the narrator’s skill in speaking in that dual way.
Having started as it did, the surprising turn the tale takes, and the details of its having taken that path, are both enjoyable and repulsive - even macabre. With about 20% of the book remaining, Leonard is a much-changed man, even if still mainly caught up by circumstances. Until he isn’t.
Recurringly, there is a dry, wry humour that I greatly enjoyed in this excellent book.
#areadersjourney
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
b_austridge's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0