On Sticking the Landing: “The End”

What is more disappointing than reading a good book—maybe even a first-rate page-turner—and then having the ending fall flat? I recently had that unpleasant experience with a work of a quite renowned author. The result was that I was left with an unsatisfied taste in my mouth as my final memory of the book, which otherwise I would have recommended. Think of an Olympic gymnast: she may perform like an aerial pixie, but if she stumbles on the landing, her score plunges. Yes, openings are important, yet maybe nothing is such a deal-breaker as a flat ending, because the author has no more chances to win you over.

The Last Word

The denouement is where everything gets wrapped up, all questions are answered, and the reader comes away grinning with pleasure, heart warmed and brain satisfied. Red herrings are exposed, seeming villains are revealed to be good guys, and we finally find out who done it. But not just who— why and how as well. The reader gets to feel smart because he figured it out, or else he’s flabbergasted by the surprise of it all.

There Is No Happy Ending?

That doesn’t mean the ending has to be happy. It may be quite tragic. But there has to be something proportionate about it in relationship to the novel that has gone before. A heroic gesture that redeems. A final success after all the failures. Some action or event that makes us go “Whew” with relief... because this had to be. A sense of rightness, even inevitability, accompanies a really good ending.

Certain modern novelists have rebelled against this Satisfying Ending, because they say that life is not so neat. Things are often unresolved, and poetic justice is all too rarely meted out. But art is not life. Many people read precisely to enter a world where things are a little neater (as well as more dramatic) than their everyday reality. Crimes are solved. The good are rewarded. People make sacrifices, even at the cost of their lives. Someone has said that reading fiction is the best antidote to being depressed by the daily news.

I would add that that’s true even with a book that is depressing. Because there is a shape to a book.

And That’s the Way It Was Don’t be afraid to linger over your conclusion, so that its full importance is felt. I had an editor tell me once that I had rushed through the final reveal until it seemed deus ex machina, even though it wasn’t.

Nothing is less satisfying than a lovingly crafted read that stops dead and leaves you waiting for a conclusion. But, you know what? That’s not as easy to avoid as it seems. Timing slows down after that. The brief denouement may take a long time to spin out. It’s like a cool draft of water after a breakneck run. And yet we authors, who have spent months if not years on this book, are sometimes like a horse who starts galloping faster and faster as he approaches the barn.

While we’re mixing metaphors, keep that Olympic gymnast in mind. Give a brilliant performance (you always do), but be sure to stick the landing!