(Drivebycuriosity) - Ian McEwan is a very interesting writer who likes to provoke. I enjoyed his novels "Cement Garden", "Sweet Tooth" & "Machines Like Me" (my reviews cement sweet machines ). This brought my attention to his book "The Innocent", published 1990 ( amazon). According to Wikipedia the novel received positive reviews from book critics and is often considered one of his best novels ( wikipedia). I have mixed feelings with this novel. I like the style and there are many funny ideas, but I have severe problems with the plot.
In 1955 the "innocent", a 25 years old Englishman, arrives in Berlin, which is still ruined by the war. The young engineer, formerly employed with the British Post Office, has a job in an intelligence project in the begin of the cold war between the West and the Soviet system and he also has a relationship with a young Berlin woman. Both threads are wonderfully described but in the middle of the book the plot suddenly changes and becomes a farce (this is a spoiler free book you can find a synopsis here wikipedia).
I enjoyed how McEwan described the interactions between the British & the Americans who participated in the intelligence project. He did this with humor and psychological insights. This applies also to the relationship with the German woman. The elaborated but descend described sex scenes are very funny. But in the middle of the book the story and the leading character suddenly change and the plot becomes a kind of macabre and absurd theater. Nothing against that, but both parts don´t fit together. McEwan wrote much better books.
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