Terminalcoffee discussion

What book conclusions would you rewrite? If you've ever had a case of "Awww, why'd the author have to go and end it that way," how would you change it? I know we can't always have things go our way, but sometimes you read a great book, and then you go...that's it? Like, that's the ending? Or maybe a novel left you feeling perfectly satisfied, and then it's a case of what if.

I wish the ending of Sense and Sensibility didn't tie up so nicely.

The end of Charlotte's Web made me cry when I was 4.

I wouldn't have minded if the protagonist of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle had (view spoiler)[ gotten back together with his wife (hide spoiler)].

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I really liked it until the end. It bothered me a lot.

Part of me thinks who am I to want to rewrite the end of Of Mice and Men even though that's the first one that came to mind. Then part of me thinks I'd like to rewrite the ending to every fantasy book that ends without resolution pending the next book in the series so I could put an end to lazy writers.

Wasn't there a Dickens book where he wrote two different endings? I think he wrote one ending when he published the book serialized in a magazine but was unhappy with the way events were summed up. Then maybe he wrote another for publication in book form. Has anyone else heard of this or remember which book? It was a big one, like Great Expectations, or David Copperfield, but my memory has gone blank.

I agree LG.

I could have done without the codas at the end of the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series.

What didn't she have the guts to follow through on? I don't mind spoilers. I'm never reading the books.

I don't know about Dickens, but The French Lieutenant's Woman had two different endings (both in the book).

Turns out it was Great Expectations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ex...

Unfortunately, I'm so hazy on the details of the plot and characters at this point, I'm having trouble picking up on the significance of the changed ending.

Thanks! That's pretty funny. I read the Reasoning With Vampires blog every day. I get so much out of making fun of Stephenie Meyer that I feel a tiny bit guilty about not reading the books. Not guilty enough to actually read them though.

I read Le Cid in class not long ago, and messed up the test because the ending was so uneventful and bland that I couldn't remember it. In some ways, it was wonderful, because it was exactly what you were supposed to hope would happen -happy endings and all that, Rodrigue and Chimène overcome all the obstacles and get married. But it didn't fit. The whole play was about a battle between generations, between social classes, and all of that was thrown aside at the end almost for the sole purpose of reefining the genre (tragicomedy -happy ending, basically). The fight does not end with the play.
I was a bit disappointed.
But then again, I am not Pierre Corneille.

I'd also like to rewrite the end of No and Me, simply because it hurt so much. Yes, it was the right ending. But ...I cried for so long.

The end of Oscar & Lucinda.

I wouldn't rewrite the end of Harry Potter so much as add to it. I didn't like the way it kind of fell off a cliff. All the world-building, the plethora of characters, the emotional weight of the story itself, kinda called for a little more at the end.

Don't Breathe a Word: A Novel

I also always read Great Expectations with the alternate ending. I hate the original ending.

Why do some authors have to add, "A Novel" to their titles? Is this information that we don't know, or are they so arrogant that they feel they have to separate themselves from people who just write "A Book"?

Maybe I should start adding :A Post to my comments, so you all know what they are?

I always thought it was funny, like they're afraid you're going to think it is TRUE! (Because, the King of the fairies coming to steal your sister away so he can knock her up is so likely to be mistaken for true...)

Although, it would have helped me with The Life of Pi. I was arguing with my husband that it was true up until they got to the acid island...that's where he lost me. I was buying the whole tiger thing and everything. I never thought of myself as gullible before, but clearly...

Well, they DO transport zoo animals via freighter. That part was totally believable.

Michael wrote: "Why do some authors have to add, "A Novel" to their titles? Is this information that we don't know, or are they so arrogant that they feel they have to separate themselves from people who just writ..."

Is it the authors doing that or the publishers? I read Caravans a number of years ago before it became trendy to add "A Novel" as a suffix to the title. The book was subsequently published in 2003 as Caravans: A Novel of Afghanistan. Michener died in 1997.

It's definitely the publishers doing it. We discussed this in another thread. I'm not sure if we concluded it was a marketing thing, or merely to help booksellers shelve.

Isn't a novel just a book and it can be a fiction novel, a non-fiction novel, a suspense novel, etc.? I suppose I should be happy that someone is looking out for my well-being by adding the distinction because now I don't have to worry about going out to buy Don't Breathe a Word: A Novel, and coming home with Don't Breathe a Word: A Butter Substitute.

I don't think so. Novels are fiction...always fiction.

nov·el1    /ˈnɒvəl/ Show Spelled
[nov-uhl] Show IPA

–noun
1. a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.

I don't really like the term myself, but it does exist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fict...

Then there's Edmund Morris's Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan which sort of purports to be a biography but

The biography has caused confusion in that it contains a few characters who never existed, including scenes where they interact with real people. Morris goes so far as to include misleading endnotes about such imaginary characters to thoroughly confuse his reading audience. Elsewhere, scenes are dramatized or completely made up. (wiki)