Ian McEwan – Enduring Love: A Novel – Comment.

 

The first chapter of this novel captures the imagination with such force that it is extremely difficult to close the book at any point in the reading. As the tale unfolds, it becomes an intense psychological thriller about obsessive love, after a professional couple witness a terrible accident in the English countryside of a man falling to his gruesome death from a hot air balloon. For anyone, witnessing a senseless death can have dire emotional consequences. Ian McEwan is an expert at creating emotional suspense as we experience the thoughts and actions of his characters. One feels the paranoia and sheer anger of Joe Rose as a strange man, J. Parry, stalks him relentlessly, writing endless letters, standing outside his apartment, and following him through the streets of London. The problem is that no one, including his wife and the police, believes the situation to be serious, until the man's obsession turns dangerously psychotic. 

 McEwan describes homo-erotic obsession with religious overtones in such realistic detail that it is simply chilling to follow Joe Roses reactions to the obsessive actions of his stalker. Pure erotomania is a strange disease as the subject is under the delusional belief that the `object' of their obsession is in love with them. Their mind will conveniently cast aside any facts to the contrary of their self-created delusion, even to the extent of denying the fact that the `object' is married. One of the most frightening aspects about this mental disease is that it can continue for years, not entirely ending until the patient's death. 
 

The stalker does not let up and Joe Rose's life spins out of control. His beautiful wife simply does not see the seriousness of the situation and believes the real problem to be with Joe. There is a brilliant chapter in the novel where the narrative switches from the first person to the third, giving the reader access to his wife's point of view during an intense argument. We gain sympathy for the wife but realize she is not listening, and not understanding what Joe is saying because she is so caught up in her life. And like most relationships or marriages, it is difficult to be selfless. However, even at the end, she continues not to see her husband's point of view, despite the harrowing events that take place. 
 

This book is about love in its many forms, from the `normal' to the psychotic. McEwan displays great insight into the human psyche and the numerous contradictions it contains. Enduring Love is an exciting narrative and truly haunting in its depiction of human obsession.