Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Unresolved endings

Do you like a neatly tied up ending, or an unresolved ending?  Usually, I like resolution.  Especially in books, I like to know what is happening, or will happen, to the characters.  Jane Austen has nice resolved endings in her books -  the heroine marries the wealthy, handsome man.  There is nothing I hate more than getting to the end of a very lengthy book, 400 pages or more, only to find I have no idea what will happen to the protagonist, and there is no sequel.  I feel like screaming!

In short stories, the endings are often unresolved.  The form lends itself to unresolved endings, and I can stomach them a bit better in a short story.  But my favorite ending in a short story is the surprise ending - like O. Henry, or Jeffrey Archer.  Archer is the master of surprise endings.  He has a few short story collections, and one is entitled
A Twist in the Tale. That is a great read!  You will gasp out loud at the endings in that book.

There is one book in the bible that ends with a question.  It is a rhetorical question, but a question nonetheless.  Can you tell me which book it is?  You can leave a comment below.

2 comments:

  1. The book of Jonah? Or the book of Job.
    Magda

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  2. Jonah! Remember when Bill preached on it? "Should I not care about this great city?"

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