Tough love … Rinko Kikuchi and Kenichi Matsuyama in the 2010 film of Norwegian Wood.
"You don't find love; love finds you" says the blurb for The Rosie Project. It's romantic to attribute love to serendipity rather than effort, but I think enduring love is something we have to make rather than discover. The most engaging, uplifting and comedic stories come from our efforts to create and sustain love in difficult circumstances with imperfect human materials.1. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones suffers no mental or physical illness; there is no war going on around her; she faces no real obstacle besides her own personality. It's obstacle enough. Everyone's heard of this book, but I suspect not many men read it. They should: the pitch-perfect voice and genuinely funny comedy put it in a different class to most chick lit, enough to edge out Nick Hornby's High Fidelity for this "beginners" slot.
2. Daniel Martin by John Fowles
The eponymous protagonist is a screenwriter and novelist, but I read Daniel Martin before I had ambitions of being either. If there was a connection, it was with the idea of love being thwarted by circumstances but never entirely extinguished. Daniel's love is for his friend's wife Jane, who is also the sister of his estranged wife. When his friend dies, Daniel is in a new relationship, but decides to take Jane on a cruise to the Middle East. When I read Daniel Martin 25 years ago, I was well placed to judge his rendering of the moral dilemma and emotional turmoil, though not to the extent of "wife's sister", which I'd suggest is a no-go zone.More
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