Enduring Love

De: Ian McEwan

Narrado por: Steven Crossley

From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement—a brilliant and compassionate novel of love, faith, and suspense, and of how life can change in an instant.

The calm, organized life of science writer Joe Rose is shattered when he sees a man die in a freak hot-air balloon accident. 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.

©1998 Ian McEwan (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC

Interesting exploration of love and pathology

I'm not sure what I expected from this novel. I went in having only ever read a few McEwan short stories. So I guess my assumptions were that this would be a novel full of lush descriptions, evocative and beautiful, deep characters with surprising traits and personalities. What I hadn't expected was to read a psychological thriller involving a menacing stalker, an endangered relationship, and a surprising ending. I liked this story, quite a lot. It's got me hooked. I'll definitely add more of McEwan's work to my listening library.

Really good

Interesting subject matter told in a good story. A hint of the mystery. Never a dull moment. I really like his style. The reader was very convincing.

Psychological Thriller

The title of this book makes it sound like a romance. But don’t be fooled. There is no romance in here, and precious little love.

Instead, it’s kind of a psychological thriller revolving around the obsession of one man for another.

The two guys, Joe Rose and Jed Parry meet through a ballooning accident. They are out in the country for their own very different reasons, and this hot air balloon suddenly appears in serious trouble. Both of them, and several other people rush in to help, but they are unable to stabilize the balloon before it is blown away again, and one of the other men trying to help is blown away with it and subsequently falls to his death.

Afterward, Jed inexplicably assumes Joe is in love with him and begins stalking him. Joe is understandably freaked and tries to discourage the attention, reports Jed to the police, etc., all with little success.

Joe’s wife points out to him several times, including very decisively at the end of the book, that he has become just as obsessed, and I have to agree with her. Joe is a freelance science writer, and he analyzes everything nearly to death. Apparently, this is his defining characteristic. He feels compelled to research until he finds a psychological syndrome that corresponds to Jed’s particular type of obsession but does not seem to want to admit to his own.

The book is tightly crafted and well-written, with a somewhat surprising ending; I was sure someone would wind up dead as a result of all this. But I don’t think I would have added this one to my list if I had realized at the time what it was about.

in with a bang, out with a whimper

Enduring Love is a nicely crafted story with rich characters and beautiful passages. The narration by Steven Crossley is superb. Unfortunately, the story really doesn't deliver the goods in the end. There is suspense throughout and the tantalizing expectation of a surprise twist or two. But... the story simply fizzles out. No revelations, no ah hah! moment, nothing to remotely satisfy those raised expectations. I was very disappointed in what is supposed to be one of McEwan's best works. A friend of mine in the British literary business finds him quite overrated as a novelist, and now I understand why.

Haunting, engaging, disturbing

A contented marriage intersects with a bizarre ballooning accident and suddenly everything in this man's life is different - even him. It's beautifully written, exploring the subtle changes that happen when obsession - yours or someone else's - enters a life. The reading is masterful - the voices and characterizations are brilliant.