5/5 stars (*****)

I really enjoyed this novel by McEwan. I’ve read Atonement and it’s one of my favourite books. A piece of trivia for you, too: McEwan based Briony’s family home on his old school, Woolverstone Hall, which is where I now go to school.

Anyway, back to Enduring Love. This was suggested to me as one of the modern books I should read for our A-Level English Literature course, titled ‘love through the ages’, so when I read the synopsis I was confused: this seems to be about obsession, not love.

To be quick, the main character Joe and stranger Jed exchange a passing glance, a glance that has devastating consequences and that indelibly burns an obsession into Jed, 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.

However, and thankfully, this book surprised me. Yes, it is about obsession – deadly obsession- but it’s not just about that.
There’s an underlining conflict which runs throughout the novel: religion vs. science. The longer science based passages intrigued me: McEwan didn’t overload with jargon but didn’t treat the reader like an idiot either. Jed’s religion which dominates his life, however, is treated a little oddly, in my opinion, and left me feeling a little sour. His mental illness, on the other hand, was well put across and didn’t seem ridiculous.

The prose, as always with McEwan, was beautiful. Flowing and simple, he interweaves the main character’s devastation and paranoia so seamlessly that you’re not left wondering for anything at all. Even the antagonists chapters are good: the change in writing style transports the reader away from
Though an unusual ending, I thought it was realistic and sensible. Happy endings don’t always exist. Though the religion bashing wasn’t fantastic, it didn’t detract from the rating and on reflection, it’s not too bad.

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