‘Enduring Love’ by Ian McEwan

I have been familiar with the name Ian McEwan for a long time, long before I ever actually picked up one of his books. For a number of these books have been made into films, and though my attention span only recently learned how to cope with novels, it has always been able to appreciate a good film. The most prominent example of Ian McEwan’s work having been adapted for the big screen is, of course, Atonement - British director Joe Wright turned it into an Academy Award-winning film in 2007 - however another novel of McEwan’s which found its way into the cinema, in 2004, is Enduring Love. Now I have yet to see the film adaptation of Enduring Love, in spite of it starring the delectable Daniel Craig, and for this reason I was able to approach the book with fresh eyes. And I must say I am grateful for this, for I cannot remember the last time a book had me so riveted that I was unable to relinquish it even at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Enduring Love opens with an extraordinary and unexpected event - a ballooning accident. Joe Rose, the novel’s well-heeled protagonist, is sitting down to a picnic in the Chilterns with his wife Clarissa when hell quite literally breaks loose on the other side of the hedge. Joe and a band of well-meaning bystanders become implicated in the tragedy, watching as one man falls from the balloon to his death. One of the bystanders, a man named Jed Parry, develops an inexplicable infatuation with Joe and begins, seemingly, to harass him. First by making phone calls, later by sending letters. Parry’s obsession soon escalates, however, and Joe’s quiet life is turned upside down in ways he likely never imagined. At the start of Enduring Love he is a man whose life consists of freelance science writing and drinking fine wine with his wife; at the end he is an entirely different person.

With Enduring Love, Ian McEwan has pulled off something very rare. He has written a novel as well-paced and compulsive as a thriller, combined with all the psychological insight and intelligence we have come to expect from him. His exploration of de Clérambault syndrome, the obsessive disorder from which Jed Parry ostensibly suffers, is both intriguing and unsettling, bolstered by a wealth of wider reading which is detailed in the acknowledgements section at the back of the book. But, even without the scholarly leanings, Enduring Love would still hold up on the strength of its story alone. And even when you think you have heard it all McEwan still manages to sneak in a surprise or two. Overall, I couldn’t recommend this novel enough. Much like a hot potato, it deserves to be passed on and on.

This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in January 2013.