Ian McEwan - The Innocent

PRAISE FOR THE INNOCENT

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1990

Ian McEwan proves himself to be an acute psychologist of the ordinary mind. He gets our mundane virtues and vices, our craziness and sanities, exactly right, without the distortions of cynicism or sentimentality.

New York Times Book Review

A crackerjack novel make sure the answering machines up and running before starting youre unlikely to brook interruptions once youve opened it up.

Chicago Tribune

Pure literary pleasure its McEwans fascination with the inner sources of cruelty and conquest that gives The Innocent its frightening vitality.

LA Weekly

A delicious mix of eroticism and peril The ending is poignant and unpredictable. McEwan is a truth teller with a flair for story making.

New Woman

McEwan is an excellent storyteller his forte remains exploring the psyche of his characters and their growth in knowledge and experience at the expense of their innocence.

Boston Sunday Herald

The Innocent is a thoughtful, serious novel doing business as a thriller makes brilliant fictional use of a real-life event.

Milwaukee Journal

Grisly, cunning, often mordantly funny a wonderful exercise in literary strategy.

St. Petersburg Times

Unfolds with psychological acuity. Its the sort of book Hitchcock might have snapped up for production.

USA Today

A topical and brutal tour de force that somehow ascends from horror to a promise of goodness and grace.

M ICHAEL O NDAATJE

A gripping, absolutely unique story of love and suspense that you wont forget.

J OSEPH W AMBAUGH

Ian McEwan is the bestselling author of more than ten books, including the novels Atonement, The Comfort of Strangers, and Black Dogs, all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Amsterdam, winner of the Booker Prize, and The Chad in Time, winner of the Whitbread Award, as well as the story collections First Love, Last Rites, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and In Between the Sheets. He has also written screenplays, plays, television scripts, a childrens book, and the libretto for an oratorio. He lives in London.

BY IAN McEWAN

First Love, Last Rites
In Between the Sheets
The Cement Garden
The Comfort of Strangers
The Child in Time
The Innocent
Black Dogs
The Daydreamer
Enduring Love
Amsterdam
Atonement

The Imitation Game

(plays for television)

Or Shall We Die?
(libretto for oratorio by Michael Berkeley)

The Ploughmans Lunch
(film script)

Sour Sweet
(film script)

TO PENNY

My labours on the Castle Keep were also made harder, and unnecessarily so (unnecessarily in that the burrow derived no real benefit from those labours) by the fact that just at the place where, according to my calculations, the Castle Keep should be, the soil was very loose and sandy and had literally to be hammered and pounded into a firm state to serve as a wall for the beautifully vaulted chamber. But for such tasks, the only tool I possess is my forehead. So I had to run with my forehead thousands and thousands of times, for whole days and nights, against the ground, and I was glad when the blood came, for that was a proof that the walls were beginning to harden; and in that way, as everybody must admit, I richly paid for my Castle Keep.

FRANZ KAFKA, The Burrow,
translated by Willa and Edwin Muir

After dinner we saw an amusing film: Bob Hope in The Princess and the Pirate. Then we sat in the Great Hall and listened to The Mikado played, much too slowly, on the gramophone. The PM said it brought back the Victorian era, eighty years which will rank in our island history with the Antonine age. Now, however, the shadows of victory were upon us. After this war, continued the PM, we should be weak, we should have no money and no strength and we should lie between the two great powers of the USA and the USSR.

JOHN COLVILLE, describing dinner with
Churchill at Chequers ten days after the
end of the Yalta Conference.
The Fringes of Power: Ten Downing
Street Diaries, 19391955

I t was Lieutenant Lofting who dominated the meeting. Look here, Marnham. Youve only just arrived, so theres no reason why you should know the situation. Its not the Germans or the Russians who are the problem here. It isnt even the French. Its the Americans. They dont know a thing. Whats worse, they wont learn, they wont be told. Its just how they are.

Leonard Marnham, an employee of the Post Office, had never actually met an American to talk to, but he had studied them in depth at his local Odeon. He smiled without parting his lips and nodded. He reached into his inside coat pocket for his silver case. Lofting held up his palm, Indian greeting style, to forestall the offer. Leonard crossed his legs, took out a cigarette and tapped its end several times against the case.

Loftings arm shot out across the desk and offered his lighter at full stretch. He resumed as the young civilian lowered his head to the flame. As you can imagine, there are a number of joint projects, pooled resources, know-how, that sort of thing. But do you think the Americans have the first notion of teamwork? They agree on one thing, and then they go their own way. They go behind our backs, they withhold information, they talk down to us like idiots. Lieutenant Lofting straightened the blotter, which was the only object on his tin desk. You know, sooner or later HMG will be forced to get tough. Leonard went to speak, but Lofting waved him down. Let me give you an example. Im British liaison for the intersector swimming match next month. Now, no one can argue with the fact that weve got the best pool here at the stadium. Its the obvious place for the venue. The Americans agreed weeks ago. But where do you think its going to be held now? Way down in the south, in their sector, in some greasy little puddle. And do you know why?

Lofting talked on for another ten minutes.

When all the treacheries of the swimming match seemed to have been set out, Leonard said, Major Sheldrake had some equipment for me, and some sealed instructions. Do you know anything about that?

I was coming to that, the lieutenant said sharply. He paused, and seemed to gather his strength. When he spoke again he could barely suppress a yodel of irritation. You know, the only reason I was sent up here was to wait for you. When Major Sheldrakes posting came through, I was meant to get everything from him and pass it on. As it happened, and this had nothing to do with me, there was a forty-eight-hour gap between the majors departure and my arrival.

He paused again. It sounded like he had prepared this explanation with care. Apparently the Yanks kicked up an almighty fuss, even though the rail shipment was locked in a guarded room, and your sealed envelope was in the safe in the COs office. They insisted that someone had to be directly responsible for the stuff at all times. There were phone calls to the COs office from the brigadier, which originated with General Staff. There was nothing anyone could do. They came over in a lorry and took the lotenvelope, shipment, the lot. Then I arrived. My new instructions were to wait for you, which Ive been doing for five days, make sure you are who you say you are and explain the situation, and give you this contact address.