Good books with unsatisfactory endings

[Yellow Fang]

It seems that authors sometimes do not know how to finish their books. The book may have been brilliant up to then, but by the final chapters it's all been said and done.

My nomination is Captain Corelli's Mandolin. After the war, Captain Corelli couldn't just come striding back and marry wotsername because that would be too pat and trite. He couldn't just not turn up at all, maybe having been killed or having married another woman, because that would have been too bleak. So, guess what, he does come back but only when they're both old due to a misunderstanding on his part forty years previously. Rubbish, if you can't think of a really good ending, you might as well give it a happy ending.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I did Oliver Twist for O level Eng Lit, I thought it was quite a good book but the last chapter is pure unadulterated mush.

 

[vernon]

I'm in two minds about The Bible's ending.

 

[accountantpete]

Lady Don't Fall Backwards - Darcy Sarto.

 

[Arch]

No, see, I like the end of Captain Corelli. It would have been too easy for him to come back, like they changed it to in the film.

 

[jonnysnorocket]

Dan Browns "Angels & Demons".......dangling from helicopters with atomic bombs .....WTF ?

 

[asterix]

When it comes to Dan Brown just the start puts me off so I can't comment on the ends.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Terra Incognita.

Beserk In Antarctic (I think it was).


Death And The Penguin.

 

[Trembler49]

It seems that authors sometimes do not know how to finish their books. The book may have been brilliant up to then, but by the final chapters it's all been said and done.

My nomination is Captain Corelli's Mandolin. After the war, Captain Corelli couldn't just come striding back and marry wotsername because that would be too pat and trite. He couldn't just not turn up at all, maybe having been killed or having married another woman, because that would have been too bleak. So, guess what, he does come back but only when they're both old due to a misunderstanding on his part forty years previously. Rubbish, if you can't think of a really good ending, you might as well give it a happy ending.

Agree wholeheartedly, spoilt a great book for me.

 

[Arch]

But life often IS unsatisfactory, neither happy or tragic. If you want happy endings, read Mills and Boon.

 

[Thomk]

Can't think of one. But I do know a fantastic book with an even better ending:

 

[Doseone]

Needful Things by Stephen King. Read it years ago, got so angry with the rubbish ending I threw the book in the bin.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Needful Things by Stephen King. Read it years ago, got so angry with the rubbish ending I threw the book in the bin.

I did that with Mr Bean's Diary many, MANY moons ago. Not only because of the bad ending, but because of the bad beginning, middle AND end!


Actually, I remember tearing it up so that nobody else would have to endure the same shower of utter sh*te.

 

[LiteratureGeek]

Seems like my kind of thread! See username lol.

The Catcher in The Rye - seems to tell you loads you don't want to know, and the bits you would like to know (at the end especially) you get nearly no information on.

The Go Between - L.P. Hartley - epilogue completely ruins it

Nineteen Eighty-Four - not unsatisfactory in a way which ruins the book, still an absolutely awesome one (I'm currently working on a dissertation proposal with this as my main text) but I really really didn't WANT it to end the way it did.

 

[marinyork]

Don't see it myself, but heard quite a few people over the years complain about the book versions of A Clockwork Orange and (we were talking about it recently on here) Do Androids dream of electric sheep. In PKD's book I don't see the fuss as Deckard is not an android and mercerism is an important part of the story - Rachael kills his pet goat, he goes for a trip has an epiphany and finds a toad that turns out to be not real.

The author I find most annoying for endings is Joanne Harris. In several of her books she spend about a quarter of the book building up to some climax and then suddenly skips to a final ending telling you what has happend! It's a bit like a cut in a film showing you a bit later.

Another book I am not sure about the ending is Lolita. We already know what happen to Humbert and Lolita from the beginning of the book, the driving at the end is fine, some of the dialogue with Quilty is very funny, but the ending just somehow doesn't quite work for me, even though bits of it are good.