Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love "has the most gripping first chapter I've ever read". In the opening paragraphs a large cast is introduced in the midst of scientific impelling drama as a hot-air balloon lunges out of control. McEwan only tells the reader briefly about the event, it doesn't give the reader any clue of what is to come later in the book.
The opening paragraphs immediately draw you into a scene of confusion and chaos. Joe, who's picnicking, with his wife, Clarissa, hears a shout and races towards a helium balloon that's uncontrollable with a boy trapped in its basket and a man hanging over the edge holding onto a rope. Joe and four other passers-by attempt to rescue the child by grabbing onto the balloon to weigh it down. .
It's soon revealed that the ballooning accident is a bit of clever misdirection, which leads to an intense experience between Joe and Jed Parry. We are given a hint of this experience when Joe describes the incident, "to the buzzard Parry and I were tiny forms, our white shirts brilliant against the green, rushing towards each other like lovers, innocent of the grief, this entanglement would bring". This description foresees the future because, if you read on you later find out that this entanglement of grief develops into a mass obsession that Parry has for Joe.
Ian McEwan hooks the reader by indicating that what Joe and the others are witnessing is just a small ordeal and makes the reader want to carry on reading through the rest of the book. "This was the pinprick on the time map" this quote gives us the impression that this incident is minor compared to colossal events that are still to come in the rest of the book. Also he holds back information "I"m holding back, delaying the information." This holds the reader in suspense and lures you to read on. .
There is an indication that something more dramatic will happen after the event of the balloon incident, "The obsessive re-examination that followed the aftermath".