Scan barcode
hollysilsbury's review
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
irene_mer's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
tsehai's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kuritsahreads's review against another edition
1.0
I hate this book. Unfortunately, I was forced to read it for school, so stopping after the first two chapters wasn't an option.
The Cold War is a very interesting topic, but this book is merely set in it, so it didn't give me any new and interesting information about how it was to live during that period. All it said was "the USA hates Russia, Russia hates the USA, the USA only works with the British because of political reasons" and so on. (Where's France in all of this, by they way?) The whole tunnel thing didn't mean a thing to me.
The relationship between Marnham and Maria is pathetic. I mean, are the explicit and disgusting sex scenes supposed to mean something?
Overall, the pace was too slow and the plot was horribly boring, until Maria's ex-husband, Otto, finally came to save some of it.
There seems to be a great number of people who like this kind of stories, and that's good. I'm just not one of them, sorry.
The Cold War is a very interesting topic, but this book is merely set in it, so it didn't give me any new and interesting information about how it was to live during that period. All it said was "the USA hates Russia, Russia hates the USA, the USA only works with the British because of political reasons" and so on. (Where's France in all of this, by they way?) The whole tunnel thing didn't mean a thing to me.
The relationship between Marnham and Maria is pathetic. I mean, are the explicit and disgusting sex scenes supposed to mean something?
Overall, the pace was too slow and the plot was horribly boring, until Maria's ex-husband, Otto, finally came to save some of it.
Spoiler
His death wasn't that much of a surprise, but the hole in his face definitely was. I also wasn't surprised when they cut him up and put him in the cases. While I hated the details in the sex scenes, I oddly appreciated how the author described how they cut the corpse in pieces.There seems to be a great number of people who like this kind of stories, and that's good. I'm just not one of them, sorry.
bamairi's review
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5