Good books with unsatisfactory endings

[martint235]

Lord of the Rings. Thousands of good pages build up to "And they all sailed away in a boat"

 

[Globalti]

Matt Seaton's excellent little book about cycling called The Escape Artist has an ending that's not exactly unsatisfactory but is very tragic indeed.

 

[accountantpete]

The film's no better. It would have been so much better if they'd done the Kate Winslett thing with Bilbo at the front of the boat and faded out to "I Will Alaways Love You" instead of that irritating pseudo-celtic muzak.

Cue Whitney and ..... action

 

[PBancroft]

Slaughterhouse Five springs to mind, largely because I've only just read it. An excellent read it simply sort of withers away at the end. Although indicated that it would be from the opening chapter, I don't think the teapot incident should have been the climax - it just didn't feel climactic.

Similarly The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - just not as shocking as it thinks it is.

 

[Proto]

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. Loved it until they went running across the ice in the Arctic. Just got a bit silly.

 

[Davidc]

I agree with Arch about Captain Correlli. Sad yes, but exactly right. The changed ending in the film doesn't work and detracts from an otherwise respectable adaptation.

Many of Dickens novels suffer from impossibly sickly sweet endings, possibly a function of being first published as magazine serials, and there are plenty of books and films that qualify, but my nomination for really abysmal endings is almost everything from Agatha Christie.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

the highway code

 

[Yellow Fang]

Many of Dickens novels suffer from impossibly sickly sweet endings, possibly a function of being first published as magazine serials

I recently finished Great Expectations. Dickens wrote two endings for it. The first was rather sad and it was suggested he re-write it. The second was a little ambiguous but more promising. Apparently, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw and some other writing luminaries thought the first ending was better, but I preferred the happier ending myself.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Ohhhhh, the pendulum is one of my favorite love stories ever, together with Salman Rushdie's "The ground beneath her feet".
I admit I cannot understand most of Eco's books, not even in Italian, but Il pendolo di Focault is awsome, imo.
YF, you need to let your imagination run loose when reading

Umberto Eco's books might as well be in Latin.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Matt Seaton's excellent little book about cycling called The Escape Artist has an ending that's not exactly unsatisfactory but is very tragic indeed.

Well, you got to forgive him that since it was a true story.

 

[Terry Kay]

Stephen King's Dark Tower series.. Took me bloody months to get through them on my breaks at work.. And I've got the last 3 in hard back so there's some weight to lug about..

I was gobsmacked and didn't pick up another King for a year..

 

[martint235]

Slaughterhouse Five springs to mind, largely because I've only just read it. An excellent read it simply sort of withers away at the end. Although indicated that it would be from the opening chapter, I don't think the teapot incident should have been the climax - it just didn't feel climactic.

Similarly The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - just not as shocking as it thinks it is.

I think it was the media that hyped it into a "shocking" book. On its own merit I think it stands up ok

 

[ceepeebee]

Everything ever by haruki murakami, dude can't end a book to save his life. Has a great way with a sentence On occasion though

 

[potsy]

Stephen King's Dark Tower series.. Took me bloody months to get through them on my breaks at work.. And I've got the last 3 in hard back so there's some weight to lug about..

I was gobsmacked and didn't pick up another King for a year..

I'm currently reading this, up to book4, guess I shouldn't bother carrying on then?

 

[tyred]

Dracula.

Not the sort of book I normally read but decided to give it a go after visiting the castle in Scotland which was supposedly the inspiration for the Dracula's castle and to my surprise, I found I really enjoyed it until the last chapter. Such a poor ending for such a brilliant book. A real shame.

I agree with Davidc on Dickens as well.