Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such Main Office
Finishing your work well is another challenge for the writer. It’s one thing to start off with gusto, another thing to make it through a potentially drooping middle, and still another to finish with flair.
One example of a book that had stepped lively and well until the end is Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River. The end of the book really comes when the father dies. Written powerfully, this scene leaves the reader stunned by the rapturous conclusion of his life, as he’s swept into a figuratively peaceful river. But the author has left many important story strings still dangling. So he must tie them up.
At this point, the novel drifts off rather than ending solidly. It’s as if Enger realized: 1) his deadline was upon him, and he had better just rush through and tie up the loose ends; 2) or he already had exceeded his word count and needed to just end the thing; 3) or he was impatient for the creative process to be over so he ran pell-mell to the last sentence.
Why do I say the ending was unsatisfactory? Because it’s a summary. We’re told what happens rather than being shown. It’s almost a synopsis of the conclusion rather than the real deal.
The Help also has a rushed feel to the ending. Skeeter’s mother miraculously recovers from her cancer so Skeeter can move to New York, and Celia Foote, a character the reader has come to care about, is dropped about 3/4 of the way through the novel with no resolution to her concerns. Most of the story’s threads are sewn into the conclusion and lead to a satisfying ending. It was so close to being perfection, but didn’t quite make the mark.
In nonfiction, leaving the reader with a sense of satisfaction is also important. Here’s the conclusion to Jon Meacham’s American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House: “The eyes of Jackson’s statue look south, across the Potomac River and toward the pockets of rebellion he put down–keeping watch, never blinking, never tiring. ‘He still lives in the bright pages of history,’ Stephen Douglas said in dedicating the statute. He still lives–and we live in the country he made, children of a distant and commanding father, a faher long dead yet ever with us.” Sounds solid, doesn’t it? Nicely wrapped up, bringing the book full circle and reminding the reader of Meacham’s perspective on why Jackson was so important to our country.
What books satisfied your reading sensibilities, and which ones left you wishing it had ended better?
I hope taking a look at the beginning, middle, and ending of a few projects helps to give you a sense of what I, as an agent, look at and think about as I’m perusing projects.
Just for fun
The answer I intended for yesterday’s question was Charles Dickens, who wrote most of his novels in the serial format. But it’s interesting to find out about other authors who did much of the same.
I never liked the ending on Gone With the Wind because I always wanted Rhett and Scarlett to work it out somehow. I loved the ending of Little Women because even though beloved Beth died, both Jo and Laurie, my two favorite characters, ended up married and happy, just not with each other.
I just finished a book that has a very satisfying ending, According To Their Deeds by Paul Robertson. It’s a murder mystery/suspense which keeps the reader guessing until the very end. It’s also a love story about a rare books dealer and his wife, and about their search for redemption. It’s a new release so I won’t give the ending away but it’s a very good from beginning to end.
“Max stepped into his private boat and waved good-bye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot.”
Short but sweet. But then Sendak’s wild things always are. 🙂
I’ve hated the endings to nearly all the recent best sellers I’ve read, in particular “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.” What kind of an ending is that where everyone likeable is killed? (Trying not to spoil it here, but I felt like I wasted my life reading for that awful ending).
“Eat, Pray, Love”–another much-hyped best seller that sagged dreadfully in the middle and came to a whimper of a stupid ending. I’m sure that book sold on it’s truly wonderful first section–all about Italy, which so inspired me I spoke Italian around the house for several days. But parts two and three were total letdown disasters.
When you invest money, time and your life into a book, you need a satisfying ending or you disappoint your reader, or in my case, make them mad. It doesn’t have to be a happy ending, but it needs to make me feel, “Yes. I understand. That’s exactly what should happen,” even if I don’t like it.
There’s two things I look for in a satisfying ending. 1. the climax has built to a moral choice the protagonist must make most likely requiring him/her to make a sacrifice and 2. there’s a hint that these characters I’ve come to love have a future. I think inspirational fiction has a great opportunity to do this because as Christian we believe there is such a thing as right and wrong, that moral choice.
I thought Terri Blackstock did a great job in both of these points in her recent book Double Minds.
I enjoyed this series, Janet. And thanks for tweeting it so that I remembered to keep checking back!
Michelle’s comment reminds me of a book’s ending that made me so mad I threw the book across the room, and that was Cold Mountain. But as I thought about it, I realized I had been focused on the nihilistic death of the hero and completely lost sight of the daughter born to the heroine, which is the book’s last scene, not the death scene. But I hated that book because I felt it teased me along with a wonderful love story and then led me to a murderous moment. And that’s where Teri’s point about a promising future comes in. I wanted a promising future for the hero.
I just read A Thousand Splendid Suns recently, and I thought the ending was good, although heart-wrenching.
*SPOILER ALERT*
One woman sacrifices herself for the one she has come to love as a daughter, finally content with her life. And the sacrifice is not in vain, as the younger woman does face a difficult life, but one with some hope nonetheless, and a cause bigger than herself. A bittersweet ending, but a satisfying one.
Okay, I’m not up the the literary quality of this post and the other classy commenters here, but I like William Dietrich’s ability to maintain the energy thru his Ethan Gage adventures (I’ve read 2 of the 3 books).
His beginnings make you feel like you’ve jumped onto a moving train. Example:
“Eyeing a thousand musket barrels aiming at one’s chest does tend to force consideration of whether the wrong path has been taken. So I did consider it…”
He carries the first person throughout, and it works. You come to like his cunning protagonist, even though his highest values are gambling, lounging,money, and the occasional sexual romp.
The energy never lets up. The first person is great And he offers a satisfying conclusions:
** SPOILER ALERT
“How do I know that we’ll see each other again?”
She smiled sadly, regretfully, and yet sweetly, and kissed me on the cheek. Then she whispered. “Bet on it, Ethan Gage. Play the cards.”
[The Rosetta Key, book 2]
Nice. I know, adverbs, and “whispered…” Breaking some rules. But it’s a fun work of historical fiction, and it works for me. And it sets up the third book… which the publisher is smart enough to tease in book 2 (the whole first chapter is there).
I love happy endings. My wife loves them more.
She reads the ending first, and if it isn’t happy, she won’t read the book.
Bill, I’m SO glad to hear that someone else reads the ending first. I’m trying to break the habit, but if the beginning hooks me and I can rest easy that the end will satisfy, it doesn’t diminish at all my enjoyment of the journey from one to the other.