The Innocents [Kindle Edition]

Firsty, I have not read the classic, "The Age of Innocence", but it is right there in my book list after I found out that "The Innocents" is loosely based on the Edith Wharton's novel. I have nothing to compare "The Innocents" to, yet it helps to review the book as a completely stand along work of fiction.

Secondly, for a while I thought that the detailed descriptions of Jewish society of North London is absolutely unnecessary, but very soon I took the Jewish community to be a separate, alive and breathing character of the novel (like the city of St. Petersburg was often a separate character in Dostoevsky's fiction).

All of the main characters of "The Innocents" are multi-dimensional and exquisitely done. If firstly you think you can "distinguish" good ones from bad ones, by the middle of the book you realise, that, not unlike in life, there is no all good and no all bad, there are always two sides to each and every coin. This, I feel, takes an exceptional writing skill to create.

The characters are joy to get to know. The plot is greatly paced. The book is well-written. It's enjoyable and interesting, insightful, clever yet light. I am looking forward to reading more of Francesca Segal's fiction.

If you torment yourself with whether, as a good Jew, you occasionally want to break out of the mould, this is the book for you. Otherwise, it pretty tedious and the characters are hard to take, even for non practising Jews.

I saw this book in its paperback form in Waterstone's, the cover intrigued me so after reading the back I made a mental note of the title and looked for it on my Kindle. I'd read the reviews and seen that previous readers had criticised its in depth explanations of North London Jewish society, however, this was very appealing to me having grown up in a mixed marriage but sadly outside of a Jewish community.

The character of Rachel could have been expanded a little more but I think this goes against the grain of Adam, the protagonist. Having lost his father as a young child, I felt that emotionally he was at a loss and the author conveyed this well in Adam's inability to see his fiancee and later wife as her own person and therefore a fully rounded individual.
His attraction to Ellie is almost like a hiatus in his life, Adam has always been the Nice Jewish Boy who looked after his mother and sister, did everything that was expected of him, met the Nice Jewish Girl, went to university and law school, joined the law firm of his future father-in-law and is making his inevitable journey towards the chupah. Then Ellie, Rachel's cousin returns to London from New York and after his initial disapproval of her, Adam begins to see a kindred spirit in Ellie which turns into infatuation.

I loved the style of writing, Francesca Segal portrayed a very warm, supportive community in 'The Innocents' which I hope she returns to in future. I could imagine the places, people and homes she described and I could almost smell the latkes.....

I would recommend this book to my Book Group, along with a small glossary of Yiddish words and Jewish terminology. I thoroughly enjoyed it!