(inspired by the How important is a good ending in a work of fiction? thread)
What are some examples of books that have really good, thoroughly satisfying endings?
I always liked the end of “Footfall”, in fact, I reread the last third of the book every year or so. Great space battle, seems fairly hard science and touch and go right up to the end.
I like several of Frederick Forsyth’s novels, most of which have some interesting twist at the end. The Devil’s Alternative, a Cold War thriller, is very datred now (or an interesting period piece), with its last twist on the very last page. Practically the last paragraph.
Not a novel, but Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead **has a terrific ending, especially for an existentialist work–basically, the ending is the title. Nice and neat.
Now if I could bend the rule just a tad, one great book whose ending never really lived up to the rest of it (in my opinion) is *Lolita[I*]*Not saying it’s a terrible ending—Humbert Humbert had to have a final showdown with whatisface, who was really just a metaphor for his guilty, sickened conscious; I dig all that. But something about that final scene always struck me as anticlimatic…of course, that may have been the point…you know what? Never mind. That was a great ending. (Off to reread.)
Around the World in Eighty Days.
To Kill A Mockingbird tops my list.
English Passengers, Matthew Kneale
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
Persuasion, actually all of Jane Austen
Skinny Dip, Carl Hiaasen
The Day of the Jackal has a nice, satisfying ending - it’s sometimes hard to bring a thriller home well.
For the opposite thread of incredibly unsatisfying endings, I suggest Stephen King’s entire oeuvre.
Gone With The Wind has the best possible ending, as far as I’m concerned.
Stephen King is hit or miss- I think some of his stuff ends well- The Shining, Misery, and Dolores Claiborne are wrapped up well.
The “twist” at the end of Jackal wasn’t as impressive as his others, so I didn’t list it, although Day of the Jackal is my overall favorite Forsyth novel (and film)
The Odessa File fits in there. I admit I haven’t read it since I was 11 or 12, but I still remember the “twist” 30+ years later.
Ender’s Game. My wife is rereading it a few feet away at this very moment, and she says it holds up very well even when you know what’s coming at the end.
The first one to come to mind is Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. The last line is wonderful. I know he’s written a sequel, but I never bothered with it. It’s a great tale of the exploration of an alien satellite rocketing through our solar system. It’s a huge cylinder, rotating to provide an artificial gravity, with everything built in multiples of threes. The book raises many questions, and doesn’t really answer many, but it’s a very good read. For those that haven’t read, the ending is spoilered below:
The satellite leaves our solar system, and we don’t really know what is was for, or really much about the “Ramans” as we call them, at all. Their ship was empty of intelligent life, so we only get to see what they built, not who they were. But the last line seals the deal: “And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: The Ramans do everything in threes.”
The Alienist by Caleb Carr. Because frankly, what book ending **couldn’t **be improved upon by having Teddy Roosevelt show up and kick everyone’s ass? Deus ex Roosevelta, if you will.
A Tale of Two Cities. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
I made up a party activity based on that ending that I like to call TR Ex Machina, where players rewrite famous endings of books and movies to involve TR. If enough alcohol is involved, you can combine this with charades.
Vanity Fair has a great ending, completely satisfying, and it keeps you thinking that things are going in the wrong direction (I remember yelling out loud at the book) before wrapping things up.
COOL! I’m not the only Sara Gruen fan around!
I will second *Water for Elephants *and add Timeline by Michael Criton and *Gerald’s Game *by Stephgen King.
I liked the ending of Possession. And the post-script.
I vote for Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a satisfying ending, but the ending is very, very right. (It also makes me tear up.)
The end of the Mistborn trilogy. Resolutions, major mysteries revealed, unexpected sacrifices, and of course, the Hero of Ages. (Not that the Hero’s identity is such a big suprise- I suspected it from Book 1, and I didn’t even pick up the eight zillion subtle clues- but what the role of the Hero actually is, and how that person qualifies).
I’m a one-girl Brandon Sanderson fan club.
It would have been far, far better if Mr. Clarke (and his [del]ghostwriter[/del]collaborator) had not emulated the Ramans in this respect. The second and third books are better forgotten - and best unread.
My favorite ending, which I always cite whenever this topic comes up is also from Clarke: