I love-love-love Ian McEwan, and I'm going to remember this holiday season as the time I "rediscovered" Ian McEwan. I read a lot of books by him a few years ago, but not ALL of his books. And I read everything new he publishes. But I ended up reading this book rather inadvertently. It just came out on the Kindle in December, and I stumbled across it and "preordered" it thinking that it was a new publication -- only to later discover that he had written it in '89 and it was only the Kindle version that was new. Well, I was happy to discover a vintage McEwan that I ended up thoroughly enjoying. Like all books by McEwan that I have read, "The Innocent" was perfectly written style-wise *and* had a fascinating plot on top of that. I don't ask for plot usually -- or not jaw-dropping plots like his at least -- but McEwan always comes through with literary writing that has great characters, nuanced descriptions of situations and emotions, themes that give you pause for thought, and plots and plot twists that keep the pages turning.

Rough description: The novel is an espionage novel based on an actual event in Berlin during the Cold War. The espionage aspect is the backdrop for a personal drama, but personal and public do intersect to a very interesting end. Disclaimer: The book is not for the faint of heart, as there is some seriously gruesome stuff in here!

Reflection on why I haven't read all of McEwan's novels: It's funny, given how much I like him, that I haven't read everything by him (I'm now on my 8th book by him, but there are a couple more that I haven't read). But I think the reason is that I like him so much that I'm almost afraid to read his very earliest fiction because I'm afraid it will disappoint... And I can't say that I have uniformly loved everything I have read by him, and so, I have reason to be a bit wary. That said, I am now planning to fill in the holes, because after rooting around unsuccessfully for something to read after the high of finishing "The Corrections," I realize that I just want to sink into more amazing writing like McEwan's, and fortunately there are a few more novels out there by him that I haven't read!

All time favorite McEwan is "Atonement," which was also my introduction to him...