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A review by gh7
Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald
4.0
All the Penelope Fitzgerald novels I've read have been quirky but this is probably the most quirky of all. It's about an Italian marriage between an aristocratic girl and a low-born neurologist from rural southern Italy. Chiara descends from a family of midgets and the first chapter, a masterpiece of surrealism, takes us back to Renaissance Tuscany when the family go to extreme lengths to protect their beloved daughter from the knowledge of her genetic anomaly: she's not allowed to leave the estate and everyone employed there is also a midget. Unfortunately, the daughter's companion begins to grow and a macabre solution is found. This story becomes the lynchpin of the family mythology. They are no longer midgets but they are rashly eccentric and this eccentricity always has a stamp of innocence.
Of greatest interest to me was her depiction of Florence and Tuscany which was excellent. I'm not sure how much time she spent there but her knowledge and understanding of the place that has been my home most of my life was that of an insider. In fact, the one English character in the novel is utterly convincing as the foreigner so richly and authentically has she evoked Italian society.
In his brilliant introduction Julien Barnes calls this a novel about the law of unintended consequences; about the bad outcomes that arise out of good intentions. I can't come up with a better description. Characters are relentlessly misunderstanding each other, especially when love is at stake. Chiara and her fiancé/husband do nothing, in fact, but argue - a distinctly refreshing take on romantic love. I also detected a strong Elizabeth Bowen influence working through this novel. The idea of innocence as an active disrupting force rather than its more conventional guise as a passive victimised quality - Chiara's reckless driving mirrors Emmaline's in To the North. I also enjoyed the fluid timelines, which include a couple of very mischievous allusions to a future long after the novel's time parameters are over. I very much doubt if this is anyone in the world's favourite novel of all time but it was, as usual with Fitzgerald, a thoroughly entertaining and fabulously constructed read. Also enjoyed Barnes' dig at the Booker judges, four women and one man, who gave the prize to Kingsley Amis' The Old Devils. Barnes comments: "Amis' last decade was one of sour and narrowing decline and loosening syntax; Fitzgerald's last decade was one of artistic reinvention, heightened ambition, and a constant, generous yet amused interest in the world."
4+ stars.
Of greatest interest to me was her depiction of Florence and Tuscany which was excellent. I'm not sure how much time she spent there but her knowledge and understanding of the place that has been my home most of my life was that of an insider. In fact, the one English character in the novel is utterly convincing as the foreigner so richly and authentically has she evoked Italian society.
In his brilliant introduction Julien Barnes calls this a novel about the law of unintended consequences; about the bad outcomes that arise out of good intentions. I can't come up with a better description. Characters are relentlessly misunderstanding each other, especially when love is at stake. Chiara and her fiancé/husband do nothing, in fact, but argue - a distinctly refreshing take on romantic love. I also detected a strong Elizabeth Bowen influence working through this novel. The idea of innocence as an active disrupting force rather than its more conventional guise as a passive victimised quality - Chiara's reckless driving mirrors Emmaline's in To the North. I also enjoyed the fluid timelines, which include a couple of very mischievous allusions to a future long after the novel's time parameters are over. I very much doubt if this is anyone in the world's favourite novel of all time but it was, as usual with Fitzgerald, a thoroughly entertaining and fabulously constructed read. Also enjoyed Barnes' dig at the Booker judges, four women and one man, who gave the prize to Kingsley Amis' The Old Devils. Barnes comments: "Amis' last decade was one of sour and narrowing decline and loosening syntax; Fitzgerald's last decade was one of artistic reinvention, heightened ambition, and a constant, generous yet amused interest in the world."
4+ stars.