Enduring Love- Ian McEwan

Another thoroughly entertaining McEwan novel. Some people believe that all McEwan offers is entertainment but this novel demonstrates much more. This particular novel is famous for it's opening; a dramatic scene in a field where a hot air balloon glides perilously towards an uncertain fate, completely out of control, causing five complete strangers to run towards it in an attempt to hold it down. One of the men who attempts to prevent the balloons journey is Jed Parry, who subsequently develops an obsession with the narrator, Joe, because he believes something unspoken has passed between them in this moment of horror. One critic sums it up superbly by saying that the "first chapter acts as a drug and McEwan plays the part of dealer most effectively."


One aspect of the novel which adds to its intricacy is the element of unreliability you have with Joe as a narrator. Jed follows Joe everywhere. He stands outside his house when Joe's at home and sends him letters pulsating with crazed affection. Nevertheless, as a reader McEwan forces us to question whether or not Jed is real or merely a construct of Joe's imagination, as his girlfriend Clarissa believes. Evidence of this can found when Joe is asking Jed for his address in case he needs to talk to him, after which he tells the reader that he was "playing along" because it was a remark Jed "was bound to misinterpret." When faced with a pathological stalker, you are unlikely to "play along" with their madness. This explains why we are likely to question some of Joe's decisions.

Many of McEwan's novels seem to have an element of horror about them, and Enduring Love is no exception. The actions of Jed Parry are bone-chillingly suspenseful, which explains why one critic ended his review by saying "I'm still looking over my shoulder." Another theme of Enduring Love which is recurrent in McEwan's work is the concept of a couple collapsing under pressure: Clarissa and Joe's love is found to be anything but 'enduring' as their trust for one another unravels slowly. This relates to the novel On Chesil Beach by McEwan, when a young couple are torn apart on their honeymoon night by their inability to overcome their fear of intercourse. This is mainly because the novel is set in the pre-libertarian 60's when "conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible", as the first sentence explains.

One final aspect of Enduring Love which ultimately separates it from being solely entertaining is the influence of science on proceedings. Joe is a science journalist who struggles with his desire to be a practical scientist. However, Joe's rationality and the believe that 'truth' is merely analytic combine to produce the complexity of Joe's viewpoint, which embodies McEwan's fascination with science. One critic remarked that "rationality is a precious and precarious construct in the novel" and through this story McEwan demonstrates what can happen to a persons sense of reality when they are solely scientific, and cannot accept the idea of unproven fact (intuition, love, religion etc.)