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Vanessa McCauley
I am a mother of two and wife of one (just feels like more some days!). I have a blog mommygourmet.blogspot.com . I love food and my friends and particularly them together with a intermingling of cocktails or wine! ...
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It Is All About the Ending

Sunday, October, 19, 2008

Okay, this really isn’t a blog, more of an observation, an opinion, a bitch.   Have you ever read a book... a perfectly perfect book?  A book where the author takes such care,  such enthusiasm, such manic detail in laying out a gripping and funny and tragic story.  Have you ever read a book, where you hurried home to read and stayed up blurry eyed (you know, hand over one eye so you can focus) because you were so addicted.  You know, the story where sometimes you read a paragraph 10 times just for the prose of it.   A book that makes you think... ”How can anyone write this well, this lovely, this perfectly?”  Have you ever read that book, only to have the dimwitted author screw the pooch on the ending?  GOD, I HATE  THAT.   Look, I can hate an ending, disagree with it, long for more.  But damn it, do NOT make me feel like you rushed the ending to meet your deadline.  Do not drop the story short.  It makes me so angry.  Really.  First , you… you dear writer, took such effort, such care in your story.  I can only imagine you invested something greater than just time into it.  How can you be the captain that leaves your ship?  Not to mention, you made me fall in love with your story like a gigolo, knowing you were not going to follow through.  I invested time and, yes I admit sadly heart, into this story.  How can you wham, bam, thank you ma’am me?  Ughhh.  It just makes me mad. 

Ughhhh.  So for all of you out there who will write the next New York Times best sellers (and you know who you are)… damn it, finish the job.  For me, a great ending can redeem a book (or poem for that matter) and bad ending can kill it.  Just my two cents.   So does anyone have some good book recommendations, other then my next read (which should arrive any day… “The One”)?

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krrobi
krrobi
Vanessa, Yeah, I understand,
Posted Sun, 10/19/2008 - 12:41
Vanessa, Yeah, I understand, but I usually know the book is going to be a bummer from the beginning or soon afterwards. I have some awesome titles for ya: A Thousand Splendid Suns--Lolita--The Kite Runner--The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted--To Kill a Mockingbird--Disgrace--The Book of Ruth--Evening--The Hours----These are just a few of my faves. Anyhow, I'd write to the author if I were you and tell them how you felt about this let down. Honest, I would. Next time, they (the author) may follow through---bringing the reader in a full orgasm!!
ClaudineMJ
ClaudineMJ
It's a subjective thing..
Posted Tue, 10/21/2008 - 08:39
I also think it's a subjective thing. The Kite Runner was a good book--UNTIL the ending. Most of it was interesting, heart tearing, and really quite good. But, enter the ending and now you have a contrived story with an ending all tied up in a little bow. I do not like that at all. There are many times I'd rather the author not be too specific at the end--let me come up with what may have happened on my own. But, it's all subjective. Kite Runner was a big hit--so what the hell do I know?? ;)

Claudine M. Jalajas
http://cjalajas.blogspot.com/

Tara
Tara
I know what you mean, girl.
Posted Sun, 10/19/2008 - 13:13
I know what you mean, girl. There's no closure to everything leading up to it, and you're right...it's not acceptable! You should write the author a letter. Maybe he/she will learn a little something.
getaclewis
getaclewis
Just a thought...
Posted Sun, 10/19/2008 - 20:10
You'd be amazed that, in fact, some authors don't actually control the ultimate content (ergo, the endings) of their own books after editing. If an editor/publisher feels the ending should differ to satisfy public lust, it can change! (This depends, of course, on just how much control the author has agreed to relinquish in exchange for marketing, advance $$, etc.) So if it feels rushed, it just might be that (a) someone else ghostwrote it or (b) the author's heart wasn't in the changes. Always consider this possibility! (Some authors decide to self publish because they hate the control they lose otherwise!) "Trust Life's unfolding..."
Charlene Ross
Charlene Ross
Vanessa, I'm so glad I'm not
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 07:45
Vanessa, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who will read a paragraph repeatedly "just for the prose of it." You have a wonderful way with words Girlfriend. Yes, bad endings are awful. It's funny Kim mentioned "The Hours" because I wasn't loving that book UNTIL the end - then it was 'wow, that book was amazing.' And "1000 Splendid Suns" - yes, yes a thousand times yes! And if you want something light, but extremely awesome in a Bridget Jones kind of way "The Gospel According to Sydney Wells" is smart chick lit and laugh out loud funny. And if prose is your thing I'm reading "Bel Canto" and it's just gorgeous, but I haven't gotten to the end yet, so I'll have to let you know!
ReneeCK
ReneeCK
Made SOOOO Sure!
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 08:23
I got my book deal in December and went to work full-time (for a magazine I'd been freelancing for) in January. Obviously that blew my deadlines to crap. I had the decision to make- and it was exactly this kind of let down that led me to meekly ask my publisher (who already was publishing my book not self publish, but take the expense themselves publish) for an extention. It felt like the only fair thing to do.

I am glad it's not just me that sees that crap. I started to think that I am more attuned to it because I'm a writer. Whew! Rushed endings and predictable, formulaic story lines. It may be the stuff of Harleqin Romances (and skirt!trashy fiction!) but to play in my world, you gotta give me the unexpected.
Renee- writer and WOMAN!
jackirenee
jackirenee
Another blurry-eyed reader
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:02
Late at night, the house is silent, everyone is sleeping, and I am curled up under the covers, with the lonely side-table lamp on, promising myself that I will put the book down and go to sleep once I finish this chapter. Okay, well maybe the next chapter. Or the next. Before I know it, it is 3:00 am, and I have just come to the end of the book. If the ending is satisfying, I wish with my whole heart that the book wasn't truly over, that I still had days worth of reading and it would just go on and on. If the ending fell short, I sit there, deflated and consummed by the confusion of so little sleep, wondering if the author even understands the heartache, not to mention soon to be occurring headache, they have just caused me. In those moments, life never seems more unfair. So I am with you on this one. If you are writing something that will keep me up to all hours of the night, please don't disappoint me in the end.