{"id":8667,"date":"2020-11-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8667"},"modified":"2020-11-17T18:18:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T23:18:28","slug":"story-endings-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8667","title":{"rendered":"Story Endings – Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"ending,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week Washington Post<\/em> book critic Ron Charles\u2019s recent essay<\/a> about book endings that disappoint was reviewed on this website. Apparently, I wasn\u2019t the only one intrigued by this account. Says Post<\/em> editor Stephanie Merry, his essay let loose a torrent of reader comments that aired \u201ctheir personal grievances about the endings that still haunt them.\u201d The result, she says, was a funny, eclectic, and, not surprisingly often contradictory view of how we want our books to conclude. She reports on that outpouring here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Merry, there was \u201cnearly universal agreement on a handful of books.\u201d Perhaps readers were reminded of these loathed conclusions by Charles\u2019s post, as the comments repeat many of the examples he highlighted. A \u201ctop contender for worst ending\u201d was Gone Girl<\/em><\/a>, by Gillian Flynn. After all the clever and powerful twisting back and forth between Nick and Amy, the consensus seems to be that it\u2019s just too weak. Another popularly unpopular ending was that of Charles Frazier\u2019s Cold Mountain<\/em><\/a>. I think I read that years ago, but maybe I just remember Rene Zellweger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to Gone Girl<\/em>, in which the ending just flopped, the disappointment with Cold Mountain<\/em> seems to be a case in which readers didn\u2019t like the ending the writer chose (my problem with Tess of the D\u2019Urbervilles). <\/em>People have been saying the same about Romeo and Juliet, Madame Bovary, <\/em>and Anna Karenina<\/em> for generations It\u2019s almost as if we readers are saying, don\u2019t make us care about these characters so much unless you plan to keep them alive long enough for a sequel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one reader (Javachip) wrote more eloquently, \u201cThere\u2019s a difference between endings that crush you with their sadness or horribleness but still work, and indeed you hate them because<\/em> they work, (he cites examples), vs. endings that feel like a cheat.\u201d (Emphasis added.) In that category he puts Bel Canto<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> by Ann Patchett\u2014the first of hers I ever read, years ago\u2014and I do not remember the ending at all. Must not have made much of an impression. At least it didn\u2019t make me mad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A surprising number of readers confess to reading the end first. \u201cI always enjoy a journey more if I [don\u2019t] have to worry about where I am going,\u201d said Post<\/em> reader Alison Cartwright. Something I would never do, would you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there were the contrarian readers who suggested nominees for best <\/em>ending, including The Great Gatsby <\/em>and The Underground Railroad<\/em>. Lopezgirl5 is a fan of Charlotte Bronte\u2019s ending for Jane Eyre<\/em>: \u201cReader, I married him.\u201d That might make a good first <\/em>line for a certain kind of story, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: pixel2013 for Pixabay<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week Washington Post book critic Ron Charles\u2019s recent essay about book endings that disappoint was reviewed on this website. Apparently, I wasn\u2019t the only one intrigued by this account. Says Post editor Stephanie Merry, his essay let loose a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Story Endings - Part Two - how readers responded to the WashPo article about novel endings that disappoint.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,174,29],"tags":[117],"class_list":["post-8667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-endings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2fN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8668,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions\/8668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}