Enduring Love
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| Enduring Love | |
 First Edition hardback cover |
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| Author | Ian McEwan |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Publication date | 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 247 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0224050311 (first edition) |
Enduring Love (1997) is a novel by British writer Ian McEwan. It is regarded by many as one of McEwan's best works, though it was not shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction, an award that he would later win with Amsterdam.
It has been adapted for film and was released under the same name.
[edit] Plot summary
On a beautiful, cloudless day, a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe Rose and his long-term partner Clarissa Mellon are about to open a bottle of wine when a cry interrupts them. A helium balloon with a 10-year-old boy in the basket and his grandfather being dragged behind it has been ripped from its moorings. Joe immediately joins, along with several other men, in an effort to bring the balloon to safety, but in the rescue attempt, one man, John Logan, is killed.
Witness to this tragic accident is bystander Jed Parry. Joe and Jed exchange a passing glance, a glance that has devastating consequences and that indelibly burns an obsession into Jed's soul, for Jed suffers from de Clerambault's syndrome, a disorder that causes the sufferer to believe that someone else is in love with him or her. Delusional and dangerous, Jed gradually wreaks havoc in Joe's life, testing the limits of his beloved rationalism, threatening Clarissa's love for him, and driving him to the brink of murder and madness.
During a lunch with Clarissa and her godfather, Joe witnesses the attempted shooting of another man. However, he realises that the bullet was meant for him and that the similar character of the people at the other table had misled the killers into thinking the other man was their target. Before the hitman can deliver the fatal shot, Jed, orchestrator of the event, intervenes to save the innocent man's life before fleeing from the scene. In the subsequent interrogation, Joe insists that it was Jed who was behind this but the detective does not believe him, possibly because he appears to get many of the facts of the incident incorrect. Joe leaves dissatisfied, knowing that Jed is still out there and looking for him. Like the detective, however, Clarissa becomes skeptical that Jed is stalking Joe and that Joe is in any danger. Their relationship is placed in jeopardy by their differing views.
Fearing for his safety, Joe purchases a gun through a long-time acquaintance. On the journey home, he receives a call from Jed, who is at Joe's home with Clarissa. Upon arriving at his apartment, Joe sees Jed sitting on the sofa with Clarissa. Jed then asks for Joe's forgiveness, before taking out a knife and pointing it at his own neck. To prevent him from killing himself, Joe shoots him in the arm. He escapes without charges. In the first of the novel's appendices (a medical report on Parry's condition) we learn that Joe and Clarissa are eventually reconciled and that they adopt a child. In the second (a letter from Parry to Joe), we learn that after three years, Parry remains uncured, and is now living in a psychiatric hospital.
[edit] External links
- Reading Group Guides page
- Salon article - "Ian McEwan fools British shrinks"
- Interview with Bold Type
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