A Good Ending?

I just finished Bille Letts' latest novel, Made in the USA. Although more serious and darker than her previous novels, it was still filled with her trademark humor and character development. She does such a wonderful job of creating characters that you care about them, feel you know them and wonder what happens to them after the book ends. Ms. Letts even confessed that these characters stay with her after she is done writing also and that she has been tempted at various times to write sequels to her previous books. I'm not sure if I feel this is a good idea or not. What if she gets it wrong...or at least doesn't end things the way I think they should end?



And speaking of ending, it seems that many authors have a difficult time ending things! I don't mind if everything isn't neatly tied up at the end, as a matter of fact sometimes that is the problem with the ending. I even enjoy a good twist at the end, even when I didn't see it coming as long as it makes sense with the rest of the story. The last book club book (The Art of Mending) had a very abrupt anticlimactic ending that didn't seem to go with the build up during the entire rest of the story. Then there is my other recent read, The Blood of Flowers (LOVED the book) that was wonderful up until the end. It almost seemed like an "and they lived happily ever after" ending which would seem to be the last thing you would expect. I got the same feeling from the end of Made in the USA. Then there are the authors that seem to hit their page limit and just suddenly wrap up the whole story in just a final page or two.



Of course now I am wondering how I am going to end this post so I guess I can see the problem!
Ending can be hard in novels and in life and beginnings aren't always a piece of cake either!
(Ending with cake seems like a good thing!)