I'm currently reading "Riding the bus with my sister: a true life journey" by Rachel Simon. I'm enjoying it so far, but I won't recommend it either way until I've finished reading. I once did that and got caught out. I started reading "The Bride Stripped Bare" by Nikki Gemmel and I got completely caught up in the feminine beauty and sweetness of the first part of the story. I began raving about it to my friend Audrey and, of course, she wanted to read my copy as soon as I finished it. The problem was, the second half of the book was creepy and hideous, verging on offensive. I began to apologise to Audrey and tell her I'd been a little premature in my praise, but by then her mind was made up and she wanted to read it. I forced myself to read the second half - gagging all the while - and then passed it on to her. We both thought the book sucked because the second half read like it had been thumb-tacked onto the front half of someone else's novel. Strange.
This is not the first time I've noticed an ending that reads as if it were stuck on the end of a book. "Journey to the stone country" by Alex Miller is the same**. It's as if an editor said to the writer "You've missed out on a plot point here, it needs an ending" and the writer has cooked up some irrelevant garb to keep the editor happy. Frankly, I imagine the author probably thought the ending was quite adequate without the tacked on bit. You don't always need endings spelled out for you. Sometimes it's good to leave the (happy or otherwise) ending as implied. [sigh] I don't pretend to be an expert,... I'm usually quite supportive when I read a book, I love to go along with the author and believe everything they tell me in the interests of having a lovely read,... but sometimes I just want to ring up the publisher and rant. Not that they'd listen to me. Not that the receptionist would even put my call through. I know, I know. I used to be that cute little receptionist protecting my boss from all manner of nutcases.'
**Yes, I know this book won the Miles Franklin Award. What would I know about decent book endings? I just read the things!
