Did I mention my theory on why you find Viggo somewhat disturbing?

No, no you've neglected to.

I can't remember other endings. There are books I liked or loved, but Owen Meany was the one where I looked at the ending, and thought about the whole again, without there being any sort of twist.

I loved the end of Map of Love. (I loved the way it was so much a weaving, which was also an element of the story.) It brought everything into this mythic structure and felt so completely right. I guess, I like the ending if it seems to fit the rest, so a lot of stuff. But I lovelovelove when I get to the end with a major WHOA and I feel compelled to reread with the new subtext I get in the last section.

Joyce's "The Dead" also achieves a terrible/beautiful lyrical quality in the final passage.

Joyce makes me shake for a whole different reason.

I love the ending of the movie (don't know if it's in the book) Barry Lyndon.

Everybody's life has, one way or another, been destroyed. Then there's a voiceover with titles: (paraphrase) "Rich or poor, good or bad, lucky or unlucky, they are all equal now." Sent chills up my spine.

Joyce makes me shake for a whole different reason.

Are we talking about Molly Bloom now? checks notes...

Are we talking about Molly Bloom now?

Speaking of great endings....

I love the ending of the movie (don't know if it's in the book) Barry Lyndon.

Everybody's life has, one way or another, been destroyed. Then there's a voiceover with titles: (paraphrase) "Rich or poor, good or bad, lucky or unlucky, they are all equal now." Sent chills up my spine.

Terribly underrated movie (although one of Scorcese's favorites) and Michael Horden's narration was wonderful.

taps foot waiting for deb's inevitable Kubrick rant :)

I think my favorite ending is "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" because Flannery has had a dark and comic tone through the whole story, and that tone leads you to a place of spiritual revelation. Where the old woman and the Misfit (one a fussy, vain, shallow biddy, the other a stereotypical killer) are exposed to each other in a deeply human way. And the darkness, and the comedy and the violence are not misleads at all, but how you get to that humanity. And it encapsulates all that not only in a narrative moment, but in a highly quotable quote from one of the characters.

mmmmmm, Barry Lyndon.

Watership Down ends very well.

I'm gonna be all obvious and say I love the ending of The Lord of the Rings almost beyond the telling of it. How the story is wrapped up for all the characters, and how the ending is both happy and melancholy, how the loss they've all suffered is so real and takes such a toll, and yet there's also a real joy at the glory of the days to come.

For bad endings to good books... I really loved Zadie Smith's White Teeth up until the FutureMouse bit. Actually, that was even okay until it became clear that the culmination of the whole story was going to center around it; suddenly, what had seemed a relatively uninteresting subplot became The Whole Point. And I didn't get enough of a sense of resolution for any of the characters.

Also, have any of you read Norman Rush's Mating? It's a fascinating story, but the ending just trails off, IMO. Still very much worth reading, though.