The innocent door Ian McEwan

Author: Ian McEwan
Title: The innocent or The special relationship
Year and place of first publication: 1990, London
Edition I used: the first publication of 1990
Number of pages: 245 Explanation of the title: The main character of the book (Leonard Marnham) is very innocent; he still lives with his parents and is still a virgin while he is already twenty five years old. His lover, Maria, tells him he’s innocent all the time and in some chapters the main character himself is thinking about his innocence and whether he lost it or not. The special relationship refers to the special relationship he and his superiors at the tunnel are supposed to have according to Bob Glass (another important character) I think it also has to do with Maria: their relationship is special; they have several remarkable ups and downs and they get through it because of their strong love for each other and eventually they separate very easy. Genre: A spy novel, although this description is somewhat easy for a book like this, that is also said in a short comment from The Sunday Times : ‘To call the innocent a spy novel would be like calling The lord of the flies a boy’s adventure yarn….the plot crackles like thin ice with dread and suspense…it ensures McEwan’s major status’ (John Carey)
Summary of the Contents: The naïve twenty-five year old Leonard Marnham is sent by the British to work on a secret U.S. project in Berlin in 1955. The Allied project (the Golden project) will tunnel from the American sector into the Russian zone to tap phone lines of communications with Moscow. Marnham handles repair and setup work on tape recorders. He is guided by Bob Glass, his only friend there. At first he thinks he’s working at a warehouse but with every ‘level’ he achieves he also gets more information about the project and he gets more important jobs. He meets Maria Eckdorf and falls deeply in love with her, he experiences a whole new world with her. Meanwhile he is a spy for a man named McNamee, he has to spy on the Americans to get all sorts of information. It seems to go well but sometimes Leonard has strange thoughts, one of them is that he wants to control and force Maria to have sex with him, so practically he wants to rape her. But the thoughts he is having become reality and he attacks Maria, she sends him away and goes to live with her parents for a while in the Russian zone. Leonard meets Mr. and Mrs. Blake, Mr. Blake knows about the Golden project, but Leonard doesn’t know that he does. Eventually Maria and Leonard make up. Maria is divorced and Leonard finds her beaten up in her flat because Otto(her ex) wanted money but found out she was seeing someone, but this doesn’t affect their relationship. It even brings them closer and they get engaged. The night of the engagement party they find Otto in Maria’s closet, when Otto wakes up he argues with Maria and eventually attacks her, at that point Leonard gets involved and they fight but unfortunately this results in Otto’s death. They cut Otto to pieces and put the lids into two cases. After a succession of events the cases end up at the tunnel. The Russians invade the tunnel and take the two suitcases with them .Leonard goes back to England and leaves Maria. In 1987, Leonard is the owner of a small factory and he's back in Berlin. He has got an old letter from Maria; she told everything (including the fight with Otto) to Glass and they got married. Glass is dead now. The story ends with the thought he’s going to see Maria in America. Main Characters: Leonard Marnham: english young man. He is well educated and worked at a Post Office in his home town. Sometimes he has the most disgusting thoughts like raping Maria or pulling the beard of Glass’s face with all the skin attached to it. Sometimes I’m quite scared of him because of that, but also because most of the time I don’t really understand him. He’s confused and he doesn’t even know himself but that is partly because of the circumstances. He is very well mannered and old-fashioned, he doesn’t talk much and is not a real social person. Maria Louise Eckdorf: German divorcee, is damaged by her former husband (he mistreated her) and therefore is afraid to trust men. She’s very beautiful and charming and has many friends. Sometimes she wants Leonard to be more of a man and she always starts arguments to get what she wants. Bob Glass: American senior liaiser. Bob is very social and talks all the time. He is very friendly and touchy but he can be a little bit harsh sometimes. Setting: The story is set in Berlin in 1955 and ends in Berlin in 1987. Point of view: Ian McEwan uses a 'describing perspective' (the writer 'tells' the story). Theme: I think the theme is love because McEwans description of the relationship between Leonard and Maria is very detailed and extended. Another theme is War; I read an article about the book and a critic said that war was the main- theme and despite I didn’t come up with it myself I agree to that. The war had just ended but it is still an important ‘ingredient’; it is mentioned all the time because it’s the cause of building the Berlin Wall. Besides the Second World War also the war between Leonard and Maria and of course between them and Otto are thematic. The Russians and the tunnel workers are also enemies. At a certain point Leonard is very confused and he’s struggling with his feelings, all this fits into the theme: war. Information about the author: Ian McEwan was born on 21 June in 1948 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He spent much of his childhood in the Far East, Germany and North Africa where his father, an officer in the army, was posted. He returned to England and read English at Sussex University. After graduating, he became the first student on the MA Creative Writing course established at the University of East Anglia by Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He was awarded a CBE in 2000. (
www.contemporarywriters.com)