Enduring Love: A Novel

McEwan has written yet another engrossing book that is also a minor literary triumph. The premise is simple: a single glance at a stranger turns into a nightmare for Joe Rose as he becomes the subject of the former's obsession. While the stalker wreaks havoc for Joe's life and his marriage, the tables are turned when Joe unconsciously becomes obssessed by the stalker's psychological condition. Along the way, the book raises many questions about trust and forgiveness in a relationship and the conditionality of life's cruel path. McEwan is most impressive in his ability to set-up a scene in the most deliberate yet unpredictable style which, in my opinion, is unsurpassed and keeps the pages turning. The famous first chapter is a brilliant example. So is the murder attempt in the restaurant that literally left me gasping. There are some gripes - the book's pacing is somewhat uneven and the psychological ramblings can be trying at times but McEwan seldom loses focus. It is not as taut and gripping as his earlier masterpiece "The Innocent" but it is indeed a fine example of McEwan's stylish brilliance.

Promising but ultimately disappointing. The reader must be of the patient sort, willing to endure McEwan's many digressions until the plot presents itself. Enough happens in the first half that the novel could go off in many interesting directions, but it seems McEwan gets lazy and uses gratuitous coincidence to resolve it all.

After besieging us with ultimate questions of life and death, man and woman, religion and science, does McEwan only wish to show vicariously through his learned protagonist Joe that he [male/scientist/atheist] is right and everyone else wrong? In that case he [McEwan/Joe] comes across, for all his ruminating enlightenment, shallowly chauvinistic. He describes the feminine perspective, from both first and third person, but doesn't seem to grasp that it is different and not necessarily flawed. Or maybe he does and lets the reader figure it out for him/herself. In any case it's hard to imagine a woman getting much satisfaction from this novel, while the proverbial husband of quiet despair gets a pat on the back.

Is existence ambivalent or discernable? Is McEwan clever or superficial? I put it down feeling I'd just emerged from a stimulating but unconvincing college lecture.

I'd probably have to read more of this author to get a better grasp of who he is, but after this artifice of a finale, which reads like the writer was approaching a deadline (or wanted to move on to something else), I doubt I'll give him the chance. Perhaps next time my flight is delayed...

I have been thinking about this book ever since I finished reading it several weeks ago. What I find most interesting is the contrast in the behavior of the narrator and his lover in relation to the obsessive love directed at the man. I, a woman, found myself identifying with the woman in the novel, dismissing the behavior of the deranged man as harmless and unimportant and feeling that the narrator was overreacting. I found myself in a state of tension brought about by the ambiguity of the situation. Once the mystery was resolved, the book seemed much more ordinary. The ambiguity was cleared up. What I most appreciate about this book was the imaginative way that the author tried to understand the two different points of view of the primary characters, man and woman. It further boggled my mind to realize that the appendix is apparently an actual document. I looked up references listed and found them to actually exist. This work is less a thriller than a philosophical construct on the nature of perception.

What strikes me about this book is the lasting impression it's left on me. I read it last summer and still find myself thinking about it and talking about it a year later. I recently finished another book and my wife asked me to compare it to any two others as a point of reference. Better than one book we'd both read, I said, but not as good as Enduring Love. For contemporary fiction, this one sticks with you.
McEwan does a fine job in painting the lead character Joe Rose, as well as the secondary players. His use of language is clear and simple, yet never elementary. The opening chapter is as powerfully imagined as any other I've read. The reader is literally hanging by a rope at the suspense of the scene. And it sets the tone for the psychological terror to come.
More than a summer read, Enduring Love explores corners of our psyches and personalities that we don't often come face to face with. Suspense, terror, humor, and the very real idea of love and romance are alive in this book, which I reccommend as enjoyable to readers of any of these genres.

McEwan has aged well and in "Enduring Love" his razor-edged prose is still chilling... The book is, at once, a dazzling meditation on causality and circumstance, science and metaphysics, epistemology, and exsistential thought.
The first chapter on the balloning accident, stands on it's own merits, as a novella length fable which explores applied Darwinism... McEwan ratchets up suspense, by only providing details of an unfolding horror on a "need-to-know" basis. The balloning accident serves as the platform of a story which is thriller, with the irony and plot reversals of a postmodern noir novel. The chapter on the derranged hippies living in rural Britian, is an example of McEwan's adroit skill at black humor...
"Enduring Love" made a splash in the media when "De Clerambault's Syndrome" which McEwan linked to the events in the book, turned out to be a sly hoax...

Ian McEwan's enthralling new novel Enduring Love begins rather simply "with the touch of a wine bottle and a shout of distress." Joe Rose leaps up from a picnic with his wife, Clarissa, and runs to help a boy trapped in the basket of an ascending balloon. He and four other men run from all sides to assist the boy. All five men grab ropes dangling from the balloon, but four of them drop off as the wayward balloon rises, leaving one brave man clinging on for life. Eventually he loses his grip and falls hundreds of feet to the ground. "I've never seen such a terrible thing as that falling man," Joe writes later.
In a moment of unnatural calm after the man's death, Joe turns to one of the other men, Jed Parry, and gives him a quick, nervous, reassuring nod. "It's all right," he says before running to attend to the dead man. In that instant, an obsession is borne.

Blessed with what is perhaps the finest first chapter ever written - in terms of the tension and expectation it creates, and the intellectual ground it covers - it might have been better if McEwan had left it there. The remainder of this novel is good, but it never quite reaches the same pitch. Ostensibly this is a thriller about a man pursued by an evangelical Christian with an increasingly violent obsession. That's good enough material for any novel, but this is McEwan so we know it's going to be about more than just that. And in that regard it doesn't disappoint: "Enduring Love" turns out to be an exploration of science, religion, causation, perception, memory and, of course, love. The plot escalates at the pace of a thriller, but it doesn't read like one. It's like a collection of meditations on various topics, played out by the same characters. It's highly readable, but ultimately it lacks the satisfying sense of unity which distinguishes McEwan's other work.

The most interesting thought in the book for me was Joe's sense of personal failure. I share this and had not really realised it until I read the book and understood his disappointment at not being a "real" scientest. I too share his obsessive behaviour sometimes when under stress and I identified strongly with this.
The best scene for me was the balloon scene - after that the rest of the book was good but not at the same intense level (rather like the beach scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" compared to the rest of the film.)
One final thing that I loved was the fact that I live 10 mins drive from where the balloon scene took place and I know EXACTLY where it was supposed to have happenned. I love my home town and surrounding area and am very proud to have come from there so this was an extra treat.

This is a disturbing story about how a chance encounter at the scene of a ballooning accident forever changes the life of Joe Rose, not because of the accident itself but because of a man he meets at the scene, Jed Parry. Because of a bizarre psychological disorder, Jed believes that he is in love with Joe and Joe in love with him. Jed begins to stalk Joe, causing so much distress in his life that his wife, Clarissa, thinks he might be going crazy. An appendix at the end reveals that the story is based on a true case history of the syndrome that Jed suffers from, which makes it all the more creepier. It sure makes you hope you're never a victim of someone with the disorder. The only complaint I have about the book is that the author sometimes goes off on irrelevant tangents about random subjects. They ultimately don't contribute to the story so there seems to be no point to them. But overall, even though this is kind of a weird book, it's a good book.

In this book, McEwan takes a shocking event and traces the impact it has on the life of the narrator, Joe Rose. And while the book is somewhat of a mystery -- is Joe imaging things or not? -- the true thread of the book has to do with doubt between loved ones. The fact that Joe's wife actually doubts his interpretation of the book's opening events is what ultimately drives this narrative. As a reader, I was fascinated by how McEwan was able to manipulate my interpretation of what I was reading. For the first half of the book, I assumed that Joe's version of events was factual, and that Joe's wife, Clarissa, was merely being unsupportive. About midway through, however, I began having my own doubts, much like Clarissa. At the end of the book, we are left with the sense that the two of them will work to overcome this episode. They have, in effect, had an epiphany by meeting with the widow of the man who was killed at the beginning of the book. This woman, too, was wrongly filled with doubt about her husband. Her statement that the only person who could forgive her is dead jars both Clarissa and Joe. McEwan's writing, as in all of his books, is top-notch. And while we may assume it was the opening balloon accident which pushes all subsequent action, it actually was Clarissa's doubt which proved to be the most damaging.

One one level, at least, McEwan descends to that of the ordinary: the mere plebian. This is the first book of his I have read where one of the main characters isn't a busom buddy or lover or former lover of some exhaltingly talented and ambitious MP or cabinet minister. The routine, even mundane middle-class existence represented chiefly by Joycean literature is often underappreciated. Joe's rational(?) narration is very everyman. The detailing of the balloon accident is exquisite and presents the role of fate and happen-chance in tragedy. ... Also, the hypothetical argument presented on pages 170-171 alone makes this worth reading.

In my opinion this is the best McEwan novel I have read and one of the very best novels I've read that is set in the present day. Maybe the best. This is only my third 5 Star book.

This started off really strong and had promise, but I think McEwan didn't know where to go with it about halfway through. It seemed like it was going to have a Fight Club-esque ending, and then it was like he thought better of it. Disappointing.

Ian McEwan is skilled at writing inner dialogue, this time from the point of view of Joe Rose. Joe and his common-law wife Clarissa, along with a group of passers-by, attempt to gain control of an unstable hot-air balloon. However, one would-be rescuer loses his life in the process. This event brings Parry into their lives, who quickly becomes obsessed with Joe. Parry's presence evolves into something dark and disturbing, threatening Joe and Clarissa's ideal relationship.

Joe is convinced Parry is disturbed, but at the same time, the reader can't help but question Joe's own sanity. Within a few days, Joe's life is turned up-side-down. This was a great book full of chilling psychological twists and turns. I was extremely pleased with McEwan's delivery of a well-drawn conclusion.

'Enduring Love' promises a lot, but never delivers.

The narrative takes off in style. By the end of the first scene - wherein our middle-class hero Joe Rose witnesses, and is partially implicated in, the death of a man in a ballooning disaster - McEwan's writing chops are beyond question. It's a brilliant scene, capturing the sense of disbelief and horror we feel at the instant when the unthinkable becomes real.

And in the aftermath of this devastating opening, the book only seems to get better: Joe's taken a serious knock from what he's seen and done, and appears to be losing his grip. To make matters worse, Joe is being stalked by Jed, a disturbed young man whom Joe encountered at the scene of the disaster. Joe's unease at being trailed by a nutter is understandable, but there's something wrong. Joe is alienating his girlfriend Clarissa and, intriguingly, we're led to suspect that Joe's persecution is largely a figment of his own imagination.

This is interesting stuff. Clearly, Joe has suffered a trauma that has badly shaken his sense of self, and he's not coping. Given McEwan's undeniable gifts as a writer, the reader's convinced he's in for a great ride, expecting nothing less than a top-shelf glimpse into the Dark Soul of Man and the Enduring Verities of the Human Condition. Or at least something above par.

But then, just as the narrative starts to gain some serious altitude, he turns off the gas. Turns out Jed is what seems to be: a nutter. And that's all. You see, Jed's got de Clerambault's syndrome, one of the pretentious names that shrinks give to stalkers. Now I know it's not nice to be a nutter, and it's even less nice to be stalked by one, but I don't go to literature to find that out. After the narrative proper peters out, McEwan even whacks on a pretend psych's report - complete with awful pseudo-medical jargon - about poor Jed, who's been committed to an asylum and doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I feel bad for Jed, but in the end he's a bit boring. Joe's a bit boring too, and so, in the end, is this book.

How do science and religion compete for the minds of humans? How do we cope when someone we love acts contrary to our passionately held beliefs? When does love turn to obsession? What are our moral responsibilities towards other human beings, especially those in danger or those who are suffering?
These are complicated questions without simple answers. If you would like to read a thoughtful, intelligent meditation on these and other important issues, then this is the book for you. It is frightfully well written and flows with the simple grace of great literature. As one event follows another with inexorable power, you will identify completely with the characters in this book and the problems that beset them. It will definitely help you to understand your fellow human beings, especially those in distress, much better.

The amazing opening sequence is probably the most masterful passage that I've enjoyed from any of McEwan's novels. A group of strangers suddenly in inexplicably swept up in a tragedy over which they have no control. Gripping, and not a word out of place. Disturbing. McEwan at his dark best.
Somehow, however, the novel never quite manages to follow up. McEwan touches on a number of things: relationships, psychology, career, ambition, science - but for me the sum product was never quite satisfying.
The novel centers around the protagonist Joe Rose, a journalist, who is pursued (stalked) by a man with a psychopathic infatuation that they share a special link and are bound by love.
Although it is obvious that McEwan had researched the mental condition that he's reporting, I was never quite caught up by the characters. Enduring Love never quite puts the diverse elements together. In the end it reads like an interesting medical piece, not like a compelling novel.
More strongly recommended by McEwan: "The Innocent" and "The Comfort of Strangers."

Joe and Clarissa are an ordinary couple. They have a stable and loving relationship until a balloon goes out of control. Joe is drawn into a group of rescuers whose efforts end in tragedy. Their life is changed for ever.

Joe is unable to free himself from his feelings of guilt. Nor can he free himself from Jed - a co-rescuer who forces his way into his life.

McEwan brilliantly tells the story of the disintegration of Joe and Clarissa's normal relationship in the face of extremely abnormal events. This is a disturbing novel but so brilliantly written that you cannot walk away from it - a bit like Jed himself.

The novel begins with one of the most gripping and disturbing opening chapters that I have ever read. Be warned!

A very well crafted tale of horror, suspense, and an understanding of the psychological minutia of relationships which I read in one sitting. If you, dear reader, are interested in psychiatry, the place of scientists and science in the modern world, scientific fashion, obsessive behaviour, religious faith, love, jealousy, murder, moral choices, guilt, and fear then this is the book for you. It's also funny eg, '" I'll tell you in four words and nothing more. Someone wants to kill me." In the silence everyone, including me, totted up the words.'(p216) But if there is a common theme binding all these elements together, it's that no matter how well educated or intelligent you are there is no escaping the strait-jacket of your feelings, and its these feelings, of cowardice, of guilt, of fear, of the protaganist, Joe Rose, which propel the story forward in true Hitchcockian manner. The effects of love going sour, the hilarity of buying a gun from ex-hippies, the strangeness of an ordinary day turning weird are some of the many highlights of this book.

My book group seemed to have reservations about this one. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't make anyone's top ten list. Many mentioned that they didn't care enough about the characters. As the book progresses, the relationship of Joe and Clarissa collapses under the weight of some admittedly strange circumstances. Some of us were particularly angry that Clarissa did not believe Joe though out the book. Joe does little to merit admiration either with his lack of communication with Clarissa. The two reminded me of political commentators who have staked out positions and cannot be swayed to see the other's point of view. It is their undoing. It becomes harder and harder to root for them. It doesn't help that the relationship between Joe and his stalker is more compelling than the relationship between him and Clarissa. I still think the first chapter is one of the best I have ever read. You will not forget it. The pace of the book is slow, which works for the first chapter but may be too much for an entire book. There are some interesting musings on the value of science vs. religion, however.

This book is a disturbing depiction of what happens to an ordinary man after becoming involved in an extraordinary event. The main character is a witness to and participant in a terrifying event. The aftermath of this event is even more terrifying for him as he becomes the victim of a stalker. This person is no ordinary stalker but one that uses psychological as well as physical methods to make the life of his victim increasingly miserable. The main character is on a downward spiral that seems headed in only one direction - that of disaster for him and the person who has developed the unhealthy attachment towards him. It was a good read and not one that you could easily determine the final outcome. I'd give it a two thumbs up!!

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.)

Readable, just, but not one of his best efforts. The author can certainly write and keep you reading but this was a little heavy and far fetched for this reader. I would still try McEwan in the future as he has written some good novels in the past.

He begins with an incident just weird enough to fascinate, but then explores the emotional fallout from that incident with the deft interior insight that characterizes his work in general. Movie critic Nell Minow once said that "The purpose of fiction is to give us a dress rehearsal to make sense of things," and this book is a perfect example of that. Key things this one helped me make sense of were how small decisions can have big repercussions, the tortured lengths we go to in justifying bad choices--but also the desperate motivation that loved ones can inspire.

Highly recommended for anyone who has someone to love--and wants to hold on to.

Only Ian McEwan could have saved this story from being a real downer. It's a story of obsession, mixed liberally with suspense, fear, and the crumbling of important relationships. McEwan's superb skills illuminate the lives of his characters, who have come together in the rescue of a little boy at a picnic, with clarity, compassion, and insight, and you care about every one of them.
It's hard to write a mad character without descending into caricature, but McEwan succeeds so thoroughly that, as the inner thoughts of all the characters are revealed, including the madman, readers find themselves wondering, Who is right? What is the `real' truth?

(4 stars- 5 stars reserved for Conrad, Dreiser, Trollope, Cheever, Carver, Kerouac . . .) How life can change is a moment. The profound impact of a chance meeting and another becomes obsessed with you. The heroic struggle where the survivors are left feeling guilty for merely surviving. How some events and relationships pry into parts of life and bite and fester and irritate until we either face them our wait for them to conquer us. Read "Enduring Love" and then ask yourself how you would respond to similar prediciments. In fact ask yourself while reading the story. For the reviewer who didn't read many "chunks" of the book, I did likewise with your review.

Enduring Love
By Ian McEwan

Enduring Love is a captivating and wonderfully written novel that allows the reader to view different perspectives of the world and consequently the conflicts they can create, through the three main characters. The book has a dramatic opening, quickly grabbing the reader by getting straight into the action. It starts with five men locked in a duty for the wellbeing of an innocent child, clinging onto the ropes of a hot air balloon to avoid it being swept away. It soon becomes a psychological warzone of who will let go first and save themselves. When the last man can hold no longer, he falls to his death from a great height sparking guilt and paranoia in the books narrator and main character Joe Rose.

Joe Rose is a scientist turned journalist who quickly becomes the focus of eccentric, religious man Jed Parry, after the countryside accident leaves an innocent man dead. Jed is portrayed as unstable and dangerous, highlighted by the colour red that is linked with him throughout. Joe becomes the victim of harassment, receiving frequent letters and visits from Jed, who claims he loves Joe and "wants them to be together". Joe has to deal with the situation whilst maintaining his crumbling relationship with long time girlfriend Clarissa who starts to question Joe's sanity, suggesting that the handwriting on letters received from Jed is similar to Joe's.

In addition to the harassment of Jed Parry causing Joe's life to crumble in more ways than one, we learn of Joe's unhappiness with his career and his "sense of failure in science", turning to science journalism. During the novel he frequently suggests that he wants to get back into real science. Investigating Joe's past allows the reader to sympathize, he is the tale of an aspiring scientist with top qualifications forced into journalism by his past and failed business ventures.

McEwan uses the three main characters in the book to demonstrate the different perspectives of the world. Joe represents science with his logical mindset, Jed as religion with his ideological love of god and Clarissa as art and emotion. Throughout the novel McEwan keeps an open mind on all three, using Joe to demonstrate the modern rejection of religion. McEwan keeps the reader on a thread throughout, constantly making the reader question the sanity of the characters and who is telling the truth. Towards the end of the book, a shock assassination allows McEwan's words to make the reader feel part of the action. He innovatively utilizes all of the human senses to portray a surreal and cold experience of death.

For a novel with such an exhilarating opening and stirring plot throughout, the ending was slightly disappointing. On the contrary it was not in the least predictable, but left me feeling slightly cold and dissatisfied. In spite of this overall, Enduring Love by Ian McEwan is an enthralling novel, gripping me throughout until the very end.

Joe and Clarissa love each other deeply. In addition they both have creative and satisfying lives. But after they witness a man's death in a balloon accident, Jed Parry, another witness, blasts their lives apart with his aggressive love for Joe. The situation is one subtly different from the classical romantic scenario. Jed believes that God's will is that he should love and live with Joe in order to woo him away from his scientific atheism and arrogance. What happens when Jed's love letters and the quality of his love itself become infected with hatred makes for a terrifying and fascinating denoument based upon a true story.

This novel is home to some of the strongest contemporary prose I have read. Unfortunately, it is not built on a very sturdy foundation.
McEwan demonstrates a passion for the psychology of detail, the passage of the mind through moments of an uncomfortable experience. The narration is wisely removed, yet piercingly aware throughout. Arguments travel great distances, to finally graze the heart of the matter just lightly enough to take the reader's breath.
All of this particularity, coupled with the inventiveness of the novel's opening, inspires a great deal of involvement with the characters and curiosity about the events of upcoming chapters. It is disappointing then when the story strays from its main question: "What happened Joe and Clarissa Rose's marriage on the day of the cursed picnic?" The agency for their destruction is assigned to a lunatic, and we are sad to see that the marriage we have come to care so much about can be destroyed by such a man.
But again, such disappointment would not be possible if it weren't so wonderfully written. It is worth it.

An elegantly crafted meditation on whether love, value and meaning can survive in a life guided only by the indifferent torchlight of scientific objectivity.

Mcewen grapples with the big questions here, questions that seem to grow ever more relevant in a world torn by the conflicting extremes of religious fundamentalism and moral vacuity. There might not be a simple answer to be found in these pages, but Mcewen's genius allows us to draw our own meanings and interpretations of the conundrum from both the surgical precison of his prose and the eerily symbolic beauty of the story.

First things first: the first chapter of this book is the best introductory chapter I have ever read. Using only a handful of pages, McEwan manages to describe not only an event that changes the lives of the people in the novel, but he makes us understand them as well. His sense of detail is fantastic; it feels as if you are actually there with Joe, Clarissa and Jed. And as the novel progresses, we travel deeper and deeper into the minds of the characters on a nightmarish journey the end of which no-one knows.
This is not a novel to be read as much as it is a novel to be experienced.

i am happy to agree with those, clearly ian mcewan-literate, who argue this is not his best book. given the genre he's put himself in until recently, one he's perfected if not invented (did james purdy invent that creepy, road-kill fascination thing?), this book is not going to measure up. there's not nearly enough illicit pleasure in the illicit (and probably illegal) pleasure, but i think it does nicely for what it wants to be: a set piece explication of circumstance and cleverness. it is likable for the sheer cheeky-monkeyness of it. it's not got a thing to do with enduring love. ps wouldn't it be nice if mcewan could tell us which of us reviewers got it right? couldn't someone who knows him convince him to opine?

The opening chapter is amazing. You won't forget it or be able to stop reading it. It's a fantastic opening to a good book, though the first half is better than the second. The principal characters are all drawn very well: Joe, Clarissa and Jed have separate, distinct and important voices. Jed's letters are especially chilling. I thought the climax unfolded a little too slowly, and the final confrontation was too easy. The subplot he changes focus with wasn't absorbing enough to fulfill me at the end of the novel. McEwan is a beautiful prose writer; I think he just lost his direction a bit at the end. Still a satifying read.

I spent an entire night (darkness to bluish-pale-just-before) finishing Enduring Love and felt somehow disappointed at the end, reading the appendix, some kind of psychological crime report that reiterated the entire novel without the science and evolution and letters. I was highly engrossed, though, and the book was, as someone else said, refreshingly challenging (McEwan, the person said, doesn't underestimate the reader). Resent I felt when I read Clarissa's letter...I thought he developed her character not as fully as he could have and without much perspective, the narrator's voice was sometimes a little pompous. A generous character makes a better narrator, but I suppose Joe Rose was supposed to be hopelessly involved in himself and his stalker. I blame him, too!

Another well-crafted, intelligent, psychologically twisting novel by Mr. McEwan. This one built around a very strange, yet apparently well-documented, mental illness. Lots and lots of human foibles, making all the central characters quite authentic, even if their convergence strains credulity a bit. A fast and recommended read.

I read it because it was situationally compelling but I wasn't interested in the narrator, his girl friend was a bit too self centered...and the bad guy was a boring bad guy. Only a few things surprised me. Then, the appendix I found so much more interesting. I liked the case study with just the initials and the 'Sergeant Friday" narrator. The case study was like watching a really good stripper who reveals nothing. The story from the case study did not put life where it was intended. If you are going to take us on this ride, give us an interesting narrator.

Joe's witnessing of the ballooning disaster which opens the novel and particularly the traumatising effect this has on him is very effective.

Joe is subsequently stalked by a troubled young man called Jed who Joe met at the ballooning accident and McEwan plays on the ambivalence as to whether Joe is imagining he is being stalked or whether he really is.

To add fuel to the fire or stoke up the tension McEwan then shows how Joe's feeling of persecution is beginning to distance his girlfriend, Clarissa, particularly when the cranky stalker, Jed, shows how he is obsessed with the idea that he, himself is in love with Joe and that God has determined that he should bring the atheist Joe to the faith.

In my opinion, a thriller is most effective when the reader feels sympathy or affection for the protagonists. In Enduring Love, I disliked Joe because of the pompous, academic style in which he narrates the story (as well as some of the things he does, which I judged to be not too bright). As for Clarissa, I thought she was superficially drawn and, when I got to the end, I was a bit disgusted to realize she'd made a pretty major mistake, which I won't describe because I don't want to ruin anything for those who haven't finished the book.
Of course, I can appreciate a lot of things about Enduring Love. The opening chapter with the balloon was strange and terrific. And I liked the introduction, midway through the story, of the widow who believed she'd been betrayed by her heroic husband. The parallel between her lack of faith and Joe's was striking. But when it came to creating tension through the threat Parry represented to Joe and Clarissa's romantic bliss, I thought the author failed because Joe and Clarissa were such clods (and their one sex scene gave me the creeps more than anything the deranged stalker did).

The first chapter of this book, describing a ballooning accident, is one of the best openings I've read in modern fiction in a long time. The chapter was published as a short story on its own in the New Yorker several years ago, and it truly stands on its own in terms of originality, suspense, and fine writing. But this novel goes on in true McEwan style to develop the chance meeting of two bystanders to the accident into a creepy, frightening tale of obsession. I won't give away more, but if you haven't read McEwan you're in for a treat.

I read McEwan's "Enduring Love" to compare it with "Amsterdam" since the New Yorker said that E.L. should have received the Booker rathen than Amsterdam.
I'm not so sure. Granted: about half of "Enduring Love's" chapters are crushingly well-written (the rest are all good to outstanding). But what I didn't like was the E.L.'s Plot and that fatuous Happy Ending...where did THEY come from, some flabby focus group or the book's assigned "nudge" publicist?
Lamentably, the story's denouement is all-too (snore, huh?) predictable. But, in the event, the outcome of the story is meant to satisfy the shabbier impulses of society, it's the deviant -- and ONLY the deviant -- who pays.

...the Appendix at the end was written by McEwan after he finished the novel and as a joke he sent it to a british psychiatric journal under 2 pseudonyms which are actually an anagram of his name ... the "case-study" was accepted and duly published.
i think for that alone he deserves a modicum of respect. HOWEVER i would like to contradict everyone by saying that although terrible scenario in chapter 1 is very clever, leading up to it is quite boring, isn't it. and the plot of the novel overall does become a bit forced and unevenly paced. ESPECIALLY the restaurant and hippie/gun scenes. i thought it was unconvincing of mcewan to randomly give us an insight into clarissa's frame of mind (that bit when she comes home from work cross and tired) and yet remain with joe for the rest of the novel - blatantly inconsistent. there were also minor inconsistencies in the text eg joe claims to have lime-flavour ice-cream in the restaurant, but when he relates the incident to the police it is apple-flavour. unusual for both an author as obsessed with detail as mcewan is, and for his eerily similar narrator joe.
and yes the book can be intensely boring - not just when joe is going on about science, but also when mcewan is being generally pedantic about descriptions of ppl/places/events. i couldn't gauge whether mcewan was being boring and scientific because he couldn't help it, or whether he ws writing "in character" as joe.
in the book's favour, i think mcewan invites us to compare ourselves with jed and empathise with him in the horrible way he makes us empathise with all his skewed characters. come on, how many times have you had a crush on someone and suspected/KNOWN that they knew, and they kind of liked you to, but couldn't say ... ? think about it ... think and shudder ...

Revelation. When that which we thought we knew becomes that of which we knew naught. The Book of Revelation, a fiery cauldron of image and prophecy, is a compilation of a series of visions had by the gospel writer John. Revelation comes from the Latin 'revelatio' which means to reveal or unveil that which has previously been hidden'. Ian McEwan's newest book revolves around the idea of revelation, dangerous, personal, political, mistaken, perceived.
According to futurist intepreters, we have yet to see whether the Johannine vision of the Final Reckoning will come to pass as he saw it; revelation anticipated, revelation unfulfilled. However, according to various other interpreters of the Book of Revelation, its prophecies have already to come to pass or are in the process of occurring. For example, the Preterist school believes that the prophecies were fulfilled with the conversion of the emperor Constantine. Another characteristic of revelation; it has considerably different meaning for different people. One person's revelation is another's madness.
And this is the theme of McEwan's novel; the subjectivity of revelation and interpretation. No two characters in the book view any of the events they witness or in which they participate in the same light. Plot developments manifest themselves, then are subject to twists and turns of new information which demonstrate how quickly the superficiality of what we 'know'; the fallibility of 'fact'. McEwan's book is also an exploration and , in part, an attack on scientific rationalism. It is a detective story in which the logical deductions are made based on evidence, and later proved to be wrong.
Catastrophic events befall the characters in the novel; the death of a man in the first chapter in the novel is recounted with immense skill, eliciting flinches and horror. The story revolves around a young couple who witness and become involved this accidental death, and the strange, surreal consequences of that involvement. The book also turns on the pivot of coincidence, but not the kind of convenient coincidence which make mass-market movies so difficult to digest. These are the kind of bizarre coincidences which seem impossible (and are in fact on occasion proved to be impossible), the quirks of fate which both plague and delight us in everyday life.
The main character in the novel is a scientific journalist/researcher, and the novel also looks at the validity of scientific method and rationalism as ways of examining how the events of our lives unfold. McEwan takes a couple who are convinced that the foundation of their lives is solid and unshkeable, and then shows us just how quickly, by contrivance of fate, that foundation can break apart and the relationship founder. Though rationally there are no problems, no issues, other factors result in the questioning of a man's most basic ideas about sanity and love.
The structure of the novel is comparable to that of another recent major novel out of Britain, A.S. Byatt's Babel Tower, where a shattering first part of the novel is followed by an considerable slowing of the narrative. Though there is the traditional climax and relieving of tension in Enduring Love, it occurs more as a afterthought, and the coherence to traditional plot formulae at this point causes the novel to lose a little of its power.
The events of the first chapter shadow the entire novel, but the subsequent plot twist is so sharp that there are, in fact, two distinct narratives which develop into a novel which is as unpredictable and erratic as, well, life. I wonder if Mr. McEwan has been watching Tarantino movies; the structuring of the plot is similar to that of Pulp Fiction. Specifically I am thinking of the scene where the bloodied boxer played by Bruce Willis finds himself in the basement of a gun shop rescuing the previously vengeful Marsellus Wallace. The relationship of the characters fluctuates from crisis to crisis, and each development changes our interpretation of what has gone before. McEwan is again experimenting with unconventional plotting, and it works very well with his explorations of character and theme.
This is not a nice tidy novel, it leaves things in sad disarray. In contrast to the deliberate evil manifest in Black Dogs, McEwan's last novel, there is no definable force which contrives to bring about the events which result in such misery; there is only the crisp meaningless zigzag of chance.

Enduring Love begins with a romantic picnic that goes horribly wrong (and as many other reviewers have also noted, the first chapter is amazing) and goes on to tell how the events of the day become definitive to the lives of everyone there.

McEwan is once again superb in dealing with the complexities of relationships, but the characters, although well-drawn, were not likeable enough to have me really hooked, and although the plot was interesting, I did get a "get on with it!" feeling once or twice.

Beautifully written, but not as good as some of his other work.

There are many admirable things about the book, including beautiful language, gripping plot and interesting ideas on fragility and relativity of love, trust, faith and reason.

However I did not feel that these pieces come together to create a whole and believable picture. The crack in the relationship between Joe and Clarissa feels too abrupt and implausible. Clarissa's character is not developed or explained enough to support her reactions and conclusions, and on the whole many of the main characters' behaviors seem manufactured and flat.

Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan, is a suspenseful account of an obsession gone too far. Happily married Joe Rose rushes away from a picnic with his wife, Clarissa, to help a child stranded in a hot air balloon. As he runs, he has no idea his life and marriage are about to change. A devastating fall causes the death of a fellow rescuer and brings the lives of two unlikely men together. Jed Parry, a lonely man rich from inheritance, immediately becomes infatuated with Joe. Jed believes Joe is a gift from God and feels unquestionably compelled to love him. His passion for Joe leads to midnight phone calls, letters of confession, a daily stance outside Joe's door, and eventually an attempt on his life. Due to Jed's presence, Joe's marriage instantly begins to suffer. Clarissa, Joe's wife, feels the strain as her husband grows as obsessed as Jed. Joe's rational, scientific mind searches for an explanation, safety, and a way of keeping Jed at bay. His search eventually leads to rash actions that do more harm than good, all the while; Jed's obsession grows.

A novel centered around obsession and its effects on those influenced by it, Enduring Love is a compelling read. Narrated by victim Joe Rose, a suspenseful twist is placed in the book. Jed, who has never received an advance from Joe, writes to him saying, "Everything we are, is in God's care, and our love takes its existence, form, and meaning from His love" (106). Through his infatuation driven by God, Joe and Clarissa become victims as their life together is invaded. Joe inadvertently grows obsessed with Jed to the point that he no longer speaks to his wife and their once loving relationship is shattered. Clarissa says, "He brought out something in you. From day one you saw him as an opponent and you set about defeating him, and you--we--paid a high price" (235). Clarissa's reaction shows how love will behave under strain. The title of this novel is a play on words. Enduring can be defined as, tolerant and lasting. Or it can imply a love to endure, or triumph over. All of which are seen though the relationships between Joe, Clarissa, and Jed.

McEwan has a magnificent way with words. His descriptive and poetic writing style keeps the reader entranced to the end. Lines such as, "The ice bucket sat within a rhombus of sunlight on a white tablecloth" (176) show his masterful control of language, that he uses while describing a simple object. Imagery, similes, metaphors, and a poetic flow add to the novel in a beautiful and suspenseful way. Each chapter ends in a cliffhanger that leaves the reader wanting more. "And even if in his desolation he had had the heart to pursue me at this speed, I could have doubled round the block and lost him in a minute" (99) ends chapter ten and creates suspense and the need to read on. McEwan shows his diversity by including letters written by Jed and Clarissa each with its own style and word choice to contrast Joe's narrative. To match the diction, each character in the novel is well developed and has an imperative role in the story he constructs.

Through his characters, thought provoking themes, and a wonderful control of language, an interactive read is generated. McEwan spins a novel to get lost in. Love's enduring nature when faced with obsession is articulately presented in this thrilling, well written novel.

Although Enduring Love wasn't an action packed thriller it left the reader in constant anticipation. The novel is a journey through the depths of the human mind. The reader is at once forced to enter the thoughts of Joe Rose. The novel is written in the first person, and the well-choosen and eloquent prose help to covey the image of Joe Rose being a compassionate and caring person. Joe looks at humans and nature with a tender eye that allows the reader to sympathize with his cause. Because the novel begins with an unlikely and unexpected disaster, the reader becomes aware of the fact that Joe may be unreliable. When Joe tells Clarissa that he is being stalked by Jed Parry she says that he is imagining things, and after seeing one of Jed's letters Clarissa comments that the handwriting is remarkably similar to Joe's. The reader is left to wonder whether it is Joe or Parry who has gone crazy. The novel also causes the reader to examine his own life. Because Joe seems to have transgressed from a state of rational thinking to a state of crisis the reader is forced to hypothesis about their own reaction in such a situation. Everyone loves to analyze and think about themselves, and this book offers the perfect opportunity to sympathize with Joe Rose while taking a closer look into one's own phyche. Joe experiences a trauma that is so unlikely it could happen to anyone. By relating the novel to one's own life it is impossible to find the novel vapid and uneventful. It is a novel that causes the reader to analyze and appreciate life.

Whoa! Here goes a first chapter that has you gasping at the edge of your seat. Yikes! Then there's a fatal attraction 'of sorts' with some additional spice to a story filled with curiosity, mayhem, suspense, attempted murder, love and more. I think it has a lot of psychological thrilling moments. What a clever and very 'well-written' novel. This was recommended to me by Trina Owens, a very sweet English Schoolteacher that I met on the island of St. Lucia in April 2004. I'd definitely recommend this one. I bet it would make a great movie, too!

Joe's witnessing of the ballooning disaster which opens the novel and particularly the traumatising effect this has on him is very effective.

Joe is subsequently stalked by a troubled young man called Jed who Joe met at the ballooning accident and McEwan plays on the ambivalence as to whether Joe is imagining he is being stalked or whether he really is.

To add fuel to the fire or stoke up the tension McEwan then shows how Joe's feeling of persecution is beginning to distance his girlfriend, Clarissa, particularly when the cranky stalker, Jed, shows how he is obsessed with the idea that he, himself is in love with Joe and that God has determined that he should bring the atheist Joe to the faith.

"Enduring Love" works fantastic most of the time when protagonist Joe Rose is in action sequences, battling off the advances of a psychopath, but slows down too much for this reader when it goes into lecture mode, as the author often does in all of his novels. All in all I enjoyed it, and mildly recommend it. Great premise, great characters, just gets a little tedious at times.

Many have praised the opening of this novel, and rightfully so, but that is only the first step in Ian McEwan's masterful creation. Told from the perspective of Joe Rose, a frustrated scientist turned journalist, the story captures our attention and never lets go. We share Joe's despair as the balloon rocks in the wind in the opening scene; we shiver as he finds himself being stalked by a delusional, obsessive intruder who thinks Joe is the love of his life. But Joe doesn't seem to trust himself entirely, and McEwan gives us plenty of reasons to distrust him even more, creating a tension in the narrative that makes us read on with a growing sense of impending calamity. In-between, McEwan explores the dichotomy of science and religion, logic and intuition, sanity and delusion. The writing is beautiful, as sharp and witty as we've come to expect of McEwan, but far more intricate and thoughtful. All that and a page-turner? It's a near-perfect read.

One of the most provocative piece of Ian McEwan-- Enduring Love introduces a new kind of reevaluation and hidden conflicts of society and life, through a deliberate coherent, analytical narration. McEwan cleverly bridges different genres: psychological thriller and tragic love story into a novel of ideas that mirrors the world in a contemporary sense. A reunited couple, a bottle of wine following by a catastrophe begins Joe's report on a tale of chaos. The protagonist, Joe Rose, a scientific writer, and his wife, Clarissa who is a romantic literature professor witness the balloon accident which causes a doctor's (Mr. Logan) life in the process of saving his grandchild. While Joe, one of the helpers hangs on to the rope, starts suspecting himself as the first one who lets go and causes his death, another helper, Jed Parry who suffers de Clérambault Syndrome comes along and insists praying together will help relieving his guilt. Although Joe refuses, his glances and looks only initiate Jed's obsession. The dreadful disaster recalls heartbreaking memory for the couple who are "unable to bear children." (31) When both of them are trying to bury their sorrow and fix up the loving relationship through love and sex, Jed intrudes their orderly life. First with numerous phone calls and messages, later, love letters and spying across the street, Jed is only anxious but never tired in revealing his infatuation to Joe who merely diagnoses his feelings through scientific and rational logic and theories which, indeed, fails him to make sense of his behavior and Clarissa's ignorance and annoyance against his obstinacy to a stranger's craze. As Jed's interference becomes more irritating and his marriage starts falling apart, Joe reaches out for help; nevertheless, police neglect his complaint until he claims to identify Jed in the shooting scene which happens on Clarissa's birthday while a professor (Jocelyn), Clarissa, and himself are having lunch and discussing Keats. Yet, due to Joe's fragmented statement and unreliable assertion of Jed's attempted murder, contrary to other witnesses', police are not the least convinced. The rational Joe, finding no way for rescue, feels the urge for self-defense and buys a gun. As Joe predicts and calculates, Jed breaks in their house and pleads for forgiveness when he admits his attempted murder. Joe's rationale hesitates and leaves Jed no choice but threatens him with his own life. After careful calculation, Joe shoots him. When chaos is over and problems are solved, Joe assumes his marriage would heal through greater intimacy. But Clarissa, finding herself unable to fit in Joe's logical world, only thanks him for his heroic rescue and leaves him for good in order to preserve her own values of love. Enduring Love wages war between science, art, and religion, through a unique exploration of love. A story of Joe, a symbol of systematic logic and reasons, Clarissa, a symbol of romantic poet-Keats, and Jed, an extreme romantic attachment with distorted values of love, are recounted and interpreted in a history narrative form and in the language of science logic and rationalism. Science, dominating the Western culture since Enlightenment in 18th century, is deemed as pure absolutes, powerful knowledge, and necessity of survival that triumphs art and religion which have now been degraded for leisure spiritual appreciation and luxury. This dramatic change has lasted until today where our mainstreamed culture, society, and life are still constructed in preference of scientific results and logical process, rather than natural tendency for feelings and knowledge of God. Ian McEwan, in his post-modern masterpiece, has defeated science when Joe, being a loner, loses Clarissa and reestablished the irreplaceable importance of love as Jed, with no regrets, is kept in a mental institution where he is still free to love and Clarissa successfully preserves her values of love. Enduring Love awakens those who have only lived within the scientific and logical frames and guidelines, like Joe, perceiving the artificial orderly world as natural and original. McEwan demeans the values and credibility of contemporary science when Joe, the narrator, fails to decompose the homosexual obsessive love of Jed through methodical science theories. Joe's rational analytical skills limits and blinds him from true understanding of love which is not able to be decomposed, defined, or analyzed; instead, it is of no boundary and no absolute definition. In his novel, love is presented as a continuous state of mind, involving no reason and logic. Besides, love is far from what Joe presupposes-a solvent to loneliness or a compromise to heal and reconcile. McEwan skillfully employs Joe and Clarissa to demonstrate the ultimate difference between expressing love and explaining love; furthermore, Joe's tendency in explaining all things seems to suggest certain norms in society that are shaped throughout the course of science and history. In addition, McEwan intentionally frames the tale in a conventional, history-like narrative form-self-contradictory, objective first person- aiming to linear, rationalize, normalize, and shape all events and details into an objective and reliable presentation, similar to history. McEwan challenges such limits of artificial, imposed form and order, which are merely inventive structure out of reasons and logic and unable to reconcile with love and emotion, in order to prove its unreliability and inconsideration when Joe starts narrating in remorse. When dimensions of history and society conflicts are added to provide a wider scope of what McEwan seeks to reserve-natural tendency, and break down-standards, conventions, and mainstream culture that blind us from the natural, original world that is without artificial order-he also strengthens its effectiveness by asserting some fictitious appendices to show readers into the worlds of fiction and reality which often lie side by side. With great intensity of a thriller, Enduring Love explores society and culture through a psychological exploration of love and offers readers a new kind of reevaluation.

I was captured by the narrative and the characters from the first page and never stopped caring. Brilliant observations of the many manifestations of the loving relationships in our lives. This story will stay with me for a long time.

Great opening chapter and then the development of what appeared to be a neat mystery. Who exactly is Jed Parry and what does he want? Is the narrator credible or mad, and then, ultimately disappointing wind-up of this exquisitely written novel. (Par for the course for this author). However, it was memorable, if not enduring.

Definitely one of the most disturbing novels I have ever read. It leaves you feeling uneasy at every step, but unfortunately leaves you so in the dark as to the intentions of the antagonist that you sometimes begin to feel a bit bored. This is a highly psychological novel since almost everything occurs only in the mind of the main character, which is absolutely marvelous, if that is the type of reading you are up to at the moment. I particularly enjoyed the ending appendices, which I found very clever, although I obviously won't reveal anything about it here. I would love to know if the syndrome described in the book is real or invented, but I can imagine that, if it exists, it is quite rare. I think this novels is a poignant demonstration of how an ordinary person can find himself quite totally alone in life in a very sudden way and due to events completely beyond his control. I recommend this book, whose author was recently awarded the Booker Prize.

The Case Study you refer to is Appendex I written by Wenn & Camia. (Anagram for Ian McEwan). Don't feel bad many noted professionals were also duped by the hoax case report.

That aside I found the book a great work by McEwan. He is a bit heavy handed by having Joe respresenting Scientific thought, Clarissa representing Artistic (Emotions) and Jed representing Religious fervor. Then mixing it all together.

I think the title is spot on; Enduring the verb represents the ordeal Joe has to face by enduring Jed's love for him as well as enduring the adjective for the love between Joe & Clarissa.

I still haven't figured out why so many of the names start with "J". Joe, Jed, John, Jane, Jocelyn, Johnny. Then there is Clarissa the only significant character that is NOT a "J" name.

Any Ideas out there?

Just finished 'Enduring Love' and found it far more convincing, much better written, yet equally as haunting and memorable as 'Cement Garden'. Oustanding! I especially found his way of teasing the reader with bits and pieces of what you know is going to be a gripping scene nothing short of masterful.
In reading other reviews on this site, I find it interesting that some question McEwan's consistency and insight into Clarissa's state of mind. Obviously these readers didn't get it. You were supposed to be sharing the doubts of Joe's sanity and viewing his 'decline' from her perspective. If there were those of you who didn't start thinking that Parry was simply a figment of Joe's obsession and a result of the shock of watching the horrific events surrounding the ballooning accident, you need to reflect a bit more the next time you pick up as well a written novel as 'Enduring Love'. This isn't the stuff of best-selling paperbacks, it's not going to hit you over the head with character motivations. You've got to think for yourself once in awhile.

"Enduring Love" is well-written, and the story is unique. It's plot-driven, but not a page-turner. The lack of a highly sympathetic character decreased my reading pleasure.
That Parry's syndrome involves his faith may be thematically important. Perhaps McEwan is hinting that like Parry, those with religious faith are investing energy in an object with no reciprocal interest.

Slow paced drama. After experiencing a tragedy, Joe and Clarissa's life as a couple is not the same when Parry decides to be part of a forced relationship. It build all this euphoria about what Parry wants and gets, and the climax could be longer, more detailed in my opinion.

I wondered by some people rated this book with just one star, and it appears that one consistent criticism is that the character and plot seem - "unbelievable" to paraphrase the comments.

It appears these critics didn't read the appendix.

The syndrome referenced in the story is well documented. A case history, which I assume is valid although not referenced in the notes, shows the basis of the story.
Clearly the amazing thing here is how bizarre our behavior can become when the brain doesn't function "normally".

It turns out that the story is merely a reflection of life, albeit life that most us would never encounter.

For my own opinion the five stars says it all - masterful.

Once again this author has written a touching novel, rich with language and engrossing. He uses a familiar mechanism: beginning with a seemingly straight-forward event, while unsettling in its instant, becoming far more, as an insignificant moment takes the story in a tumbling-out-of-control direction with a totaling unexpected ending. Ian McEwan is such a joy to read! Those who pleasure in words will be enriched by this novel.

In elegant, beautiful prose, whose richness of detail and breadth of emotion another writer can only envy, McEwan skillfully plumbs the depths of human consciousness. We can all see a reflection of ourselves in the figure of Joe, and the novel has a powerful, haunting impact that stays with the reader long after the final page, leaving behind it a lingering awareness of the frailty of the psychological, emotional and social constructs that shield us from the terrible randomness of existence.
McEwan's mastery of the English language, his flawless control of mood and tone, and his delicate manipulation of the mechanism of suspense is nothing short of breathtaking. His attention to detail reveals an exquisite sensitivity to the complex subtleties of the human experience. I loved this novel.

Interesting study of how a rationalist can get so caught up in solving his own problem, that he loses track and connection with the people around him.

If you an introverted thinker who ponders science and philosophy, this book will make you think.

And, oh, by the way, the book is a page-turning thriller at the same time.

This compelling novel is set in the soaring fields of Oxford, England, where the apparent organized life of Joe Rose, a free-lance Scientific writer, is shattered by a freak ballooning accident. Unknown to Rose, later he would meet Jed Parry, a man so obsessed with Joe, that it will threaten his rationalism and his relationship with girlfriend, Clarissa. As an avid follower of Ian McEwan since my days at High School in England, I am almost terrified by his accute sense of human nature and the ingenious way in which he successfully reveals how the life of an ordinary man can be driven to insanity and to the brink of murder by another's dillusions. I was mesmarized from start to finish. This has to be Ian McEwan's best novel to date.