# Books with great endings

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 30, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012 "2009-12-30T04:21:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012/41 "2011-01-01T01:22:43Z")

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A Prayer for Owen Meany. I get the shivers every time I read it.

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**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012/42 "2011-01-01T01:30:28Z")

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_ **Ulysses** _, of course:

…I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the  
Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the  
Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with  
my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain  
flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could  
feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes  
I will Yes.

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**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012/43 "2011-01-01T01:37:49Z")

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I also love the end of _ **Moby Dick** _:

Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.

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**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012/44 "2011-01-01T02:43:26Z")

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I like the little epilogues at the end of all of Sue Grafton’s books. I like to know what happened after the bad guy was caught. I just like epilogues.

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**Author:** ![Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pierrot_Le_Fou)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012/45 "2011-01-01T02:52:45Z")

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_The Transit of Venus_ by Shirley Hazzard. Most people hate Hazzard for some time after reading the end, but it is powerful and beautifully done.

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**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-great-endings/523012/46 "2011-01-01T03:17:07Z")

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_A River Runs Through It_, by Norman Maclean, [spoiler]"Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn’t…

I am haunted by waters."[/spoiler]

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