Alan Murrin

Guilty pleasures that fail to satisfy: Cleanness, by Garth Greenwell, reviewed

A predatory American teacher is drawn to deeper and darker sexual experimentation in this disturbing novel set in Bulgaria

Garth Greenwell. Credit: Oriette D’Angelo 
issue 25 April 2020
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  • Cleanness

    Garth Greenwell

    Picador, pp. 223, £14

In Henry and June, Anaïs Nin asks her cousin Eduardo if one can be freed of a desire by experiencing it. ‘No,’ he says. ‘The life of freed instincts is composed of layers. The first layer leads to the second, the second to the third and so on. It leads ultimately to abnormal pleasures.’

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