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A review by bub_9
Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald
5.0
This was truly a delight. It's lucid, deliberate, but also effortlessly wry and vital.
One always feels that Fitzgerald has carefully gone over the raw material on her workbench, trimming out any extraneous material and leaving us with a work that is never afraid of itself nor braggadocious in any way.
It's not really a book you read for theme or insight, just one to take delight and pleasure in the sheer comedy and fun of the work. If I had to say one thing, though, it would be that the title essentially encompasses the complexities of the work - the innocence of the characters and how it can be both an advantage or a drawback, and how it is this same innocence that leads us to view these characters affectionately rather than judgmentally; perhaps something more of us could learn to do in reality too.
One always feels that Fitzgerald has carefully gone over the raw material on her workbench, trimming out any extraneous material and leaving us with a work that is never afraid of itself nor braggadocious in any way.
It's not really a book you read for theme or insight, just one to take delight and pleasure in the sheer comedy and fun of the work. If I had to say one thing, though, it would be that the title essentially encompasses the complexities of the work - the innocence of the characters and how it can be both an advantage or a drawback, and how it is this same innocence that leads us to view these characters affectionately rather than judgmentally; perhaps something more of us could learn to do in reality too.