The usual great writing. Abandoned because the moral, psychological and physical horror are someway too much to stand these days. It will be probably bounce back as a worthwhile read in different times. Recommended all the same, for the fearless and strong of stomach. ( )

Joe y Clarissa son una pareja feliz. Él se dedica a escribir sobre temas científicos, tras haber abandonado la investigación; ella es una profesora de literatura inglesa que regresa a Inglaterra tras un breve período de investigación en Harvard. Joe ha ido a esperarla al aeropuerto, y desde allí han marchado directamente a los verdes prados de las colinas de Chiltern, a un delicioso almuerzo campestre que aúna los refinados placeres del vino francés, la naturaleza y el reencuentro amoroso. Pero en medio de aquel sensato, civilizado paraíso, y casi sin que ellos se den cuenta, se introducirá una serpiente, inesperada e inocente, pero no por ello menos terrible. Los tripulantes de un globo, un anciano y su nieto, se ven en serias dificultades. El aerostato, incontrolado, sube en el aire con el niño dentro, y Joe y otros hombres presentes en el lugar corren a socorrerlo. Todo es cuestión de segundos, y en aquel extraño nudo de encuentros urdido por el destino, el muy racional Joe conoce a Jed Parry, un fanático religioso, un «Jesus freak» que se enamorará obsesiva e implacablemente del cada vez más horrorizado Joe...

I think I've worked out what McEwan's "thing" might be. He writes very different stories, but in all of them you are left with a nagging sensation that there's something that's not been said, that there is more to this that you've been told. In Atonement, he did the whole rip the carpet out from under your feet in the last chapter trick. IN Amsterdam you're left wondering if there is a mastermind at work, pulling all the strings. In this, the seeds are planted mid way through that what Joe is saying might not be true, he might be seeing things, he might be the one with the mental instability. It's very clever, it's also rather unsettling. I think I'm going to space hos books out, too many at once could lead to increasing instability.
In this, the story starts with an accident, where a group of disparate people come together to try and hold a hot air balloon on the ground after the pilot miscalculates. The various people arrive, take hold of the balloon's ropes but are unable to keep it under control and there is a dreadful accident. The incident is the point at which the two male characters are first brought together and one of them completely misinterprets what's taking place. The relationship that is formed is one sided and not at all healthy, but it does endure, as the second appendix makes clear. It's quite a sad book as there is the ending and a fruitless beginning wrapped up in this one story.
Joe is presented as unreliable narrator, and even after the appendix, I'm still left with the nagging feeling that he's not been entirely honest, either with us or himself, about something. It's well done, but the religious mania element, while entirely relevant to the story, felt to have been laid on rather heavily at times. But then, I am speaking fomr an agnostic position, in the same way that Joe is from an atheistic one. I can understand his discomfort at what ensues, but I'm not sure he went about dealing with it in a logical manner, which is something he prided himself on. Hence my ambivalence about the truth of the matter. Hopefully that's danced around to many spoilers! ( )

Can this author really be the same man who wrote Atonement? I have now read enough of his books to know there is a range from horrid to sublime and a bit of everything in between, and this one is the in between.

I hated the first half and almost tossed it in. I didn’t for the obvious reason, I wanted to know which of the two scenarios was right, who was the crazy man here? In the end, I realized, it didn’t really matter if Joe was right or wrong, he was still unbalanced, and he was still a very unreliable narrator. What was most frustrating was that for all the elevated subject matter and intellectual writing, there was nothing greater than “story” here for me.

There is something at the heart of this book that repelled me. Perhaps it was the treatment of God and faith. I believe; and I find it sad that anyone’s belief would be ridiculed or mocked, and, notwithstanding the obvious element of insanity attributed to Jed Parry, I found McEwan’s treatment of the topic hostile and mocking in nature.

I have two other McEwan books sitting on my library bookshelves. I think they will go with me on my next trip to the used book store and I can lighten my TBR by two books. I don’t see me ever cracking a McEwan bookcover again. I am so glad I started with Atonement, because had I read these others first, I would never have gotten there.
( )

McEwan is one of my favorite authors but this one is going to the bottom of my list of his books. There is definitely creativity here and the entire story has the mark of a great writer. But it never quite worked for me. I can see the catchiness of the title. Enduring love is what many want to read about. Unfortunately a more appropriate title might be Strained Love or even What doesn't Kill You will Make you Stronger. Rather than learning about a love that endures we learn how your life can get ruined by a stalker.

What I struggled with the most are some of major plot twists. The wife is thoroughly put off by her husband's fixation on with the stalker. She can't accept his fixation and decides she needs a separation. Everything else we learn about her would lead us to expect that she would be more supportive. While her lack of support supports the storyline it just doesn't feel real. I know fiction requires some suspension of disbelief. I still had to struggle to accept it. To McEwan's credit he employs a novel way to wrap up the novel with a pseudo medical article describing the syndrome the central figure, a science writer, has referred to throughout the book. Buried deep in it is a single sentence which restores our faith that this was really an enduring love. ( )