Books with crappy endings!!!!!

Ewo · Post by **Ewo** » 2002-12-04 12:47am

Grapes of Wrath... what a depressing book and the ending wasn't quite as symbolic as it was gross. That is at the top of my list.
Good books... I really like "House of the Spirits" by Allende. Some weird stuff happens and it doesn't seem odd to any character.

Post by **Kuja** » 2002-12-04 12:50am

An ending that's both beautiful and frustrating: Of Mice and Men. Anyone who's read it will know what I mean.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2002-12-04 12:51am

Master of Ossus wrote: Hah, yeah right. I've taught them both. Lord of the Flies is far deeper, symbollically. On a literal level, Heart of Darkness is stronger, but critics who suggest that Lord of the Flies approaches Conrad are usually ill-treated for a reason. They are wrong.

What do you teach? (classes)

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2002-12-04 12:57am

Great Expectations. It's bascially like this: "Hi, I'm Pip. I was all poor and nobody loved me. Then a bunch of shit happened, and I'm older, but I'm still poor and nobody loves me."

Of course, the other ending is just one big Deus ex Machina.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-12-04 01:22am

Shinova wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote: Hah, yeah right. I've taught them both. Lord of the Flies is far deeper, symbollically. On a literal level, Heart of Darkness is stronger, but critics who suggest that Lord of the Flies approaches Conrad are usually ill-treated for a reason. They are wrong.

What do you teach? (classes)

I used to teach Composition and Literature for Seniors, then Advanced English 11, then AP English Literature for Seniors and Advanced Novel for Seniors at the High School level.

At the College level, I taught a class on the evolution of literature (I believe it was called "History of Literature"), and two different but related classes on the differences between English and American Literature in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

I emphasize that I no longer teach.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-12-04 01:23am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Great Expectations. It's bascially like this: "Hi, I'm Pip. I was all poor and nobody loved me. Then a bunch of shit happened, and I'm older, but I'm still poor and nobody loves me."

Of course, the other ending is just one big Deus ex Machina.

I agree. I think it's a weak book all the way through and I've never fully understood why so many English teachers get so excited about it, but the endings are not what I want to read nearly 600 pages of literature in order to be rewarded with.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-12-04 01:27am

Oh, oops, in my last year as a teacher I taught one period of English as a Second Language. It was by far my least favorite subject, and the one that I wish to dwell on as little as possible.

Post by **Zaia** » 2002-12-04 01:45am

The best class I've ever had in my life was an English class called "20th Century Novel" taught by a fabulous woman named Ms. Farley. She basically taught us how to think.

We started with a fairly simple (but still very good) book, The Little Prince. She took us, step by step, through the symbolism, the double-edged quotes, and turned that lovely little children's story into a gorgeous tale of love, friendship, loss and magic.

She then set us loose on books like Catcher in the Rye, Demien, Farenheit 451, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Stranger, Siddhartha, The Grapes of Wrath, and a few others I can't remember at the moment.

The class was incredible. I learned more there than anywhere else. English teachers rock.

Post by **Kuja** » 2002-12-04 01:46am

Zaia wrote:The Little Prince

I wish I could remember more of that book. I haven't read it in years.

Post by **Dalton** » 2002-12-04 01:47am

8th grade English was where I got my first taste of Tolkien. Read The Hobbit in that class and was instantly hooked.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2002-12-04 01:55am

I hated Catcher. Why the hell would someone want to read a book with an oversexed, psychotic hypocrite as the main character?

Plus, the way he talked about and acted around his kid sister Phoebe (sp?) was just plain creepy to me.

But then there was Ragtime...
.
.
.
.
.
I really, really, really fucking hate that piece of shit of a "book". Jesus, what a perverted bastardation of history.

Ragtime pissed me off so much that I just stopped reading it about 4/5 of the way through, and I still did well on the test.

IMO, the only good characters in the book were the Russian immigrant and his daughter.

Argh, just talking about it gets me pissed off!!

Stupid fucking book...

Post by **Zaia** » 2002-12-04 02:03am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I hated Catcher. Why the hell would someone want to read a book with an oversexed, psychotic hypocrite as the main character?

Plus, the way he talked about and acted around his kid sister Phoebe (sp?) was just plain creepy to me.

Well, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, although I must say that I disagree vehemently on your choice of adjectives. It is one of the most interesting, involving books I've ever read, and I didn't find Holden to be oversexed, psychotic, hypocritical or creepy. I found him to be real.

Post by **Dalton** » 2002-12-04 02:05am

Holden's an anti-hero I can truly identify with at times..

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2002-12-04 02:39am

The problem is that Holden's a jerk.

I just really got tired of all his ranting and opinions on everything. It rubbed me the wrong way, so I ended up totally hating the character.

To each his/her own, I guess.

But I still stand firmly in my opinion about Ragtime. And anybody who actually likes it will get a swift kick in the ass from me.

In senior year HS, I wrote a paper on how I disliked Catcher, even though I hate Ragtime more. This was for two reasons:

1. I didn't want to read Ragtime again.
2. I didn't want my paper to end up as a 10 page psychotic rant.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2002-12-04 03:12am

Enlightenment wrote:Bad endings? Pretty much everything by A. C. Clarke. Particularly the ending novels of series...

3001 wasn't his...

Not all of his endings are bad, either. The ending of The Fountains of Paradise I liked; it was a rather somber note with the protagonist dying, but otherwise good.

I haven't read the last of the Rama series, either, so I can't say.

At any rate, from what I've seen, Clarke likes to end his books on sad notes, not upbeat where the good guys always win. Possibly the reason many people don't like him is because he doesn't follow the GGAW model...

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2002-12-04 07:12am

The ending to pretty much every Robert Jordan book past number four.

I mean, jesus christ! A Path of Daggers doesn't even have to exist. The only thing of any note in the book is one battle. It could be maybe two hundred pages and still accomplish the same thing, but no, it's 800 frickin' pages!

I mean, the ending is always like 'Yes! I've killed a Forsaken/crushed an enemy army/defeated the Dark One yet again but nothing really changes! No one dies except the bad guys. Hell, no one gets stratched except the bad guys, there's no tension, and no suspense. Egarg.

Oh, and the ending to Wizard's First Rule was really bad, if Goodkind planned on making it a series. There was the whole 'Luke! I am your father!' scene, with absolutely no foreshadowing, and then the rest of the series isn't even connected with the rest of the book, except for one line...

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2002-12-04 07:26am

Yeah, sometimes that series really pissed me off.

However, when it isn't being crap, its actually quite good. Not sure what to make of that...

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2002-12-04 08:29am

Good books with great endings:

I am Legend
1984
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Junky
Naked Lunch
Farenheit 451
Anything by Kinky Friedman
Ham on Rye (I found it much better than Catcher in the Rye)
...loads more as well...

Books I didn't enjoy the ending to...
Most Asimov books that have more that 200 pages...
Tom Clancy
Most Stephen King except the Shinning
Jaws the book...

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2002-12-04 09:05am

The ending of the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter Hamilton, is a big Deus ex Machina. One hell of a Deus ex Machina.

3 book, each some thousand pages, totalling probable just less than a million words in total(1st book was over ~300,000 words long) ends in about than 10-20 pages.

Main character spends the best part of the series looking for this Uber device, called the Sleeping God. The Sleeping God was a device created by a race who had complete explored this universe, and uplifted them selves to another universe. The SG is demostrated to be able to move some 800 star systems out of the galaxy in milliseconds, with no disruption to the said systems. The main character finds it, and the whole series ends in about 10 pages later.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2002-12-04 09:38am

Master of Ossus wrote: Remember, independent of what you think about the philosophy that Golding writes about, The Lord of the Flies is the greatest book ever written in English. Intelligent readers like yourself owe it to Golding to try to understand the thing. Never underestimate the thought that he crafted his story with, and don't take things for granted within its pages.

Oh great, a LOTF fanwhore. I thought we had enough LOTR fanwhores...
but now LOTF fanwhores?

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2002-12-04 09:40am

weemadando wrote:Any book by Dale Brown, Tom Clancy, Eric L. Harry or any other American "military-thriller" author.

Why? Because you know that America will always win no matter what odds are against them in the last 10 pages.

No, that's DALE BROWN

Clancy has only recently gone down that road. Brown fell screaming
into the pit YEARS AND YEARS ago...

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2002-12-04 09:46am

<Alan Partridge>Welcome back. for those of you that have just joined us, we're discussing which is the best Lord - Lord of the Rings, of the Dance, or of the Flies. Lets hear from our next caller...</Alan Partridge>

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2002-12-04 09:51am

innerbrat wrote:<Alan Partridge>Welcome back. for those of you that have just joined us, we're discussing which is the best Lord - Lord of the Rings, of the Dance, or of the Flies. Lets hear from our next caller...</Alan Partridge>

PANZER COMMANDER, by Hans von Luck
THE DESERT FOX, by Brigadier Desmond Young
PATTON, by Martin Blumenson
THE LAST BATTLE, by Cornelius Ryan

irishmick79 · Post by **irishmick79** » 2002-12-04 09:54am

Heart of Darkness serves as the basis for the movie Apocalypse Now, for those of you who don't know.

I liked Slaughterhouse Five, about the bombing of Dresden.

I liked All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren about a lousiana governer much like Huey Long.

Post by **Zaia** » 2002-12-04 11:40am

irishmick79 wrote:I liked Slaughterhouse Five, about the bombing of Dresden.

Vonnegut rocks. Everything I've read of his is fabulous, but that book is definitely one of his best.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Books with crappy endings!!!!!

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