Enduring love

On the back of my copy of this book, a blurb from The New York Review of Books describes it as being "impeccably written," and they are probably not far from wrong. As I read this novel, I found myself admiring but not enjoying it. The "love" of the title should more properly be described as obsession and cannot endure without destroying both parties. The narrator Joe Rose, a science fiction writer, crosses paths with a stranger named Jed Parry when they both are witnesses to a horrific scene, an out-of-control hot-air balloon with a boy trapped in its basket. When another witness tries to save the boy, he is killed. Parry is suddenly smitten with an obsession for Rose, about which Rose is unable to convince his wife Clarissa, the police, or anyone else in his life. Madness seems to be contagious, as Rose struggles to maintain his rationality in the face of an unnatural love that portends disaster.