Apropos of the previous post, Bookmaker at http://bookswithfiction.wordpress.com/ directed me to this post for which I thank him very much and which just about sums it all up: On Great Novels with Bad Endings : The New Yorker.
We expect an ending to match the story we just read. To tie the loose ends in, but also to give us that little extra something – and don’t ask me what, because I am still struggling with that in my short story.
I will get there. When I do, I will stick it on here and you can see if I got it right.
I don’t know if it’s about tying loose ends, but giving us that little something, ending on the right note and feeling, is so key. Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Suttree’ was such an amazing novel while I was reading it, up until the last paragraph was just flat out corny. It was a real shame.
Hate corny – but it does seem to be quite a common fault. A great novel turns into something mediocre in that last paragraph and suddenly you feel as if you have wasted your time reading the whole thing.