Enduring Love: A Novel | Ian Mcewan | A Terse Literary Masterpiece on Obsessive Love from Ian McEwan

Enduring Love: A Novel | Ian Mcewan | Wonderful work by the great McEwan

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Enduring Love: A N...

	Enduring Love: A Novel Ian Mcewan Anchor, 1998 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 172 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

On a windy spring day in the Chilterns, the calm, organized life of science writer Joe Rose is shattered when he witnesses a tragic accident: a hot-air balloon with a boy trapped in its basket is being tossed by the wind, and in the attempt to save the child, a man is killed. A stranger named Jed Parry joins Rose in helping to bring the balloon to safety. But unknown to Rose, something passes between Parry and himself on that day--something that gives birth to an obsession in Parry so powerful that it will test the limits of Rose's beloved rationalism, threaten the love of his wife, Clarissa, and drive him to the brink of murder and madness. Brilliant and compassionate, this is a novel of love, faith, and suspense, and of how life can change in an instant.

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A Terse Literary Masterpiece on Obsessive Love from Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's slender novel, "Enduring Love", moves along at such an episodic fast clip that it might remind readers more of an Ian Fleming James Bond tale, than as a sophisticated literary confection from one of Great Britain's - and truly the English language's - foremost writers of fiction. McEwan opens quite literally with an explosive opening of such emotional and descriptive power, and one destined to be remembered as among the most memorable literary entrances in recent years. An explosive opening which truly sets the stage for a gripping, often thrilling, fictional exploration into obsessive love. It is such an intense exploration that readers may ponder whether the book's title ought to be "Obsessive Love". In the aftermath of a freak, tragic hot-air balloon accident, science writer Joe Rose finds his life turned unexpectedly by the compulsive acts of a someone he encountered briefly at the scene of the accident; a total stranger named Jed Parry. A stranger who professes enduring love for Rose, before it transforms itself into a twisted, tormented expression of love which threatens not only Rose's own intense love for his wife Clarissa, but also, eventually, his life. Rich in descriptively terse, almost poetic, prose, "Enduring Love" is unquestionably yet another literary triumph from the author of "Atonement" and "Amsterdam".

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Wonderful work by the great McEwan

You simply can't go wrong with any fiction by the supreme English writer of the day, Ian McEwan. Though not quite as good as "Atonement", this one was terrific and is short enough that it can be read in two or three sittings, as most of his works can be. I made it a point not to read the jacket beforehand, so the plot was a surprise. McEwan in all his books uses "love, faith, and suspense" to weave a wonderful tapestry. Thanks to him.

Are you serious?

It becomes unclear very early on in "Enduring Love" where Ian McEwan is churning the plot. The actual length of the novel mixed with the story description not only had me confused, it almost left me feeling jilted. I had to stop myself numerous times and search intently for the hidden meanings behind data and emotion. Were the letters written by Jed meant to reveal some hidden truth underneath this scientific shell that the protagonist, Joe Rose, was creating? Was the main character's wife, Clarissa, really seeing something we all weren't and going to spring it on us come novel's end?

A story of this caliber with this much wit and thought put into it, can clearly not be as cut-and-dry as it was molding itself out to be. I can not already see the ending when finishing chapter one. This author is a prized laurite. There has to be something else here. They don't make novels of this precision so predictable, do they? I searched and searched and tried and re-read several of the chapters numerous times. Nothing was revealed come novel's end.

"Enduring Love" proves to be an amalgamation of Ian McEwan's essays on scientific theory mixed with a plot point so blatantly obvious that you feel as if it's purposely being muddled to not appear as convincing as it is. In fact, the emotional maze I was being sent on chapter after chapter was so frustrating, I wanted to personally write the author a letter and ask him to share his thoughts with Popular Science instead! Don't pretend to be writing a suspense novel when you're really just running off at the mouth!

An ego splurge disguised as a novel of homoerotic obsession. (It WAS a novel of homoerotic obsession, true. They just failed to notify me that it was Mr. McEwan's obsession with himself.)

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