Endless Love by Scott Spencer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Endless Love
Book Review: A beautifully written journey into obsession
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a special jewel of a book. I always thought I had discovered it! I stumbled upon Endless Love Years ago, and I'm glad I got past thinking that the book might have any real relationship to the movie based on it. It is the story of a young man's obsession with his lover, and his relationship with her family and with his own. The self-centeredness of the main character is a bit reminiscent of the boy in "Catcher in the Rye", but all the other characters are also depicted with a clarity that made me miss them when I closed the book. Scott Spencer has an attention to physical and emotional detail that projected me into David's world, that made the characters (especially David and Jade's mother, Ann) distinct and interesting and real. And it gave me an understanding of mental illness that no other book, fact or fiction, has ever done.I've since read all of Spencer's books, and this is my favorite of his and one of my all-time favorite books.
Book Review: A story for anyone thats ever loved and lost
Summary: 4 Stars
I couldn't give this book 5 stars, not because it wasn't a great story but, there were weak points in the beginning of the book where it was too slow. Its the story of two teenagers in young love who are forced apart when the main character sets his lovers house on fire trying to get her attention after her father tells them that they need to take a break from each other. The boy has to go in a rehabilitation facility and the only thing he can do is think about his love. He becomes obsessed with finding her after he gets out. Against everyone's wishes he goes on a journey to find her and things go terribly wrong. I don't wanna give too much away but, if you have ever been in love or couldn't have something you wanted you might relate to this book about first love.Book Review: A stunning insight into love and ouryearning for the eternal
Summary: 5 Stars
My experience reading 'Endless Love' transcended the normal like/dislike/enjoy categorizations - I not only enter the world of the hero, he entered me. I found myself taking on the protagonists cause as though it were my own, and regardless of his extreme behavior, I still can't let go of the notion that everyone else (but for Jade and Ann) was less sane than David, that it was he who possessed the purest insight. Perhaps that is why I felt grief stricken when I put the book down. Spencer writes with such descriptive power and emotional truth (the' Jade and David' reunion scene is truly stunning - encapsulating the furious extremes of these characters' experiences). I suspect David and all the people close to him will live on in me. And perhaps, (thinking of the title), that is like the heroes ultimate achievement - in all the euphoric heights and shattering lows, David was never more alive than when he was with Jade. And isn't that the point? To be truly alive, just once? PS If anyone would like to discuss this novel, or has links to other articles feel free to contact the above email address (I feel I will need this, having just finished the book).Book Review: A touching story about love on many levels
Summary: 4 Stars
I first read this book many years ago in the throes of a Brooke Shields obsession. (Brooke played Jade, the female half of the teenage couple, in the 1980s movie version of this novel.) I was really expecting a cheesy teen romance, but this book is not exactly that. The main character, David, is Jade's high school boyfriend and the majority of the book takes place when he and Jade are broken up, so Jade is present through much of the story only as a memory or a fantasy of David's. Therefore, a lot of the romance is taking place in David's mind, and since he's not the most stable of characters, you have to wonder. Throughout the book other people, including Jade's mother, David's high school classmate, and others comment on their impressions of David and Jade's past love affair, thus providing a curious Rashomon-like effect. You have this teen couple who were so much in love they were oblivious to everybody else, yet everybody else was still very much noticing them.
David, to put it bluntly, is an obsessed stalker. Flashbacks tell how, in high school, he fell in love with Jade, the daughter of a permissive, neohippie (nowadays they would be called "new age") family. Jade's family allowed her and David to share a bed, with all that entailed, in the family household - if you grew up in the 60s and 70s you'll realize that this was definitely NOT the norm for high schoolers at that time. Jade's mother is secretly unhappy over being reminded of the passionate young romantic life she no longer has with her husband; Jade's father, who the book suggests is more traditionally disturbed by his little girl's having sex than he wants to let on, eventually bans David from Jade's bed and indeed, the whole house. David reacts by spying on the family in their home and then by setting fire to their house, supposedly planning it to be a small fire that will allow him to get back into the family's good graces by warning them. Unfortunately, the fire goes out of control, and although David does help rescue Jade and her family (who incidentally are all on acid that night and barely make it out alive), his arson is discovered and he is locked up.
David is let out on the condition that he not contact Jade or her family. However, he loses no time seeking them all out. The family are now scattered due to the parents' divorce, but David is able to reconnect with the mother, Anne. Eventually, through a tragic event, he meets Jade again and the two continue their relationship, only to break up again, this time for good, when she discovers his role in the aforementioned tragic event. The book ends with David once again alone and obsessed with his memories of Jade.
I mostly enjoyed this book because of Spencer's gift of writing poetic prose. None of the characters are very likable; both David's parents and Jade's parents, despite being vastly different economically, socially, and in their approach to life, are similarly bummed out over the state of their marriages. Anne appears to relish having David's attentions all to herself, and one gets the impression that David in bringing her marital troubles to a head was as much her "white knight" as he was Jade's. As for Jade herself, she's not actually in the book as a flesh-and-blood person to get a good sense of what makes her so attractive to David that he'd risk imprisonment in a mental institution just to be near her again. For that matter, you don't get a sense of why Jade would want to get back together with David, although you can see that her high school relationship with him may have been partly a rebellion against her father. All the characters seem to be in love more with the idea of love than the cold hard reality of dealing with the ups and downs of a relationship. David and Jade are channels for the feelings that the others can't express.
This is not really a love story - most girls reading it, especially young girls, would see David's arson and singleminded pursuit of Jade as being crazy and creepy, not romantic like a Heathcliff to Jade's Cathy (Jade doesn't have enough actual personality to be a Cathy) or an Edward to Jade's Bella. It's more a story about love as a concept, and on that level, it succeeds remarkably well and provides much food for thought.
Book Review: Absolutely Unforgetable!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the absolute best book I have ever read. So good in fact that I have read it seven times and each time I read this book I find myself reacting like it was my first time reading it. There are not many books written that can capture your attention from cover to cover the way this book does. Scott Spencer is an exceptional author. The best part about reading books is that you are able to know what the narrarator is thinking and feeling and Spencer is able to explain every minute detail in such a way that you are able to feel what David Axlerod is feeling. I have recommended this book to everyone I know and I especially recommend this book to people who are often very apprehensive about reading love stories. Harlequin doesn't hold a candle to this book!