I'm better at identifying bad or problematic endings.
The Poisonwood Bible? Check.
Corelli's Mandolin? Ohhh, yeah.
And so forth.
Good endings have to wrap up the plot, at least kinda sorta, and give emotional closure with the right kind of weight. They can't be too fast or too drawn-out (see Poisonwood Bible), they may include some kind of interesting twist, they shouldn't be stupid.
Which I quite seriously want as my epitaph. Well, with my name instead of Charlotte.
Get in line.
Well, I'm in no rush to kick off, so....
Thanks for the wrod, Nilly: my day is now officially made in the shade! Wow! I'm already happy, because it's the two-year anniversary of my current employment. Yay income. So very useful.
About endings: Completely in agreement about Charlotte's Web. The first time I read it, at I think age 8 or so, as soon as I read the horrible news that Charlotte had not been saved, but had actually died, well: I actually hurled my book across the room and refused to touch it for a week because I was furious with the author. I finally came back, though, because I had to know how it ended. Charlotte's epitaph is a thing of beauty, and a fine thing for either for this fictional spider or a Buffista.
Another ending that makes me cry every single time is the end of The Incredible Journey, but that's probably due to the great satisfaction that things did work out after all, all hope abandoned, and the old dog was finally seen gallantly "coming as fast as he could."
Oh, the endings of Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon.
I love the end of
The Wizard of Oz.
I love that it's not a dream, because, as much as I love the movie, the ending always rankled.
Yes, Gaudy Night. It's just complicated to say why, since it's the romantic ending you want after three books' worth of proposals and evasions.
I love that it's not a dream, because, as much as I love the movie, the ending always rankled.
There was a movie they made combined of several of the later Oz books, Return to Oz, that had an ending which left it somewhat open as to whether it was a dream or a reality (several same actors played characters both in the 'real' world and in Oz). My mom took my brother and me to see it, and I think that until this day, more than 15 years later, we're both still arguing with her regarding that point (we say it wasn't a dream, mom say it was).
It's just complicated to say why, since it's the romantic ending you want after three books' worth of proposals and evasions.
Yeah. And because it's true to the characters and the themes of the book. And because it involves Oxford and Bach.