Rose Madder (and endings) (spoiler)
Amelia Hendrix
In article <3229DC...@concentric.net>, Kathleen Wells
<kw4...@concentric.net> wrote:
> Something that bothered me, though, was
> that to me Rosie never became the kind of fully realized character that
> Jessie is in GG. Did anyone else feel this way, or am I missing something?
>
> Kate
I loved that SK left us with an "unfinished" woman... to me, that
made her so much more real. I have known women who escaped
from abusive relationships, and believe me, in the short time
period that the book takes place in, no human being could
*totally* recover from such a terrible relationship. (now, whether
a woman could kill her ex-husband while in another dimension may or
may not be possible... ;-))
Which brings up the point that I have seen raised in another thread...
I absolutely LOVE the fact that when I am reading an SK novel
or story, I NEVER know how it will end. I appreciate truly not knowing
whether the protaganist(s) will survive.
If I am totally in the mood for a "happy" ending, I read a Dean Koontz
book. :-)
Amelia
An it harm none,
Do what Ye will.
Jon R.
Amelia Hendrix wrote:
(SNIP)
> If I am totally in the mood for a "happy" ending, I read a Dean Koontz
> book. :-)
Oh no! You just spoiled all of Dean Koontz' books! <g>
Jon R.
:-{)=
Gord Hutchinson
A long time ago, in a newsgroup far, far away,
Kathleen Wells <kw4...@concentric.net> said:
>Amelia Hendrix wrote:
>>
>> I loved that SK left us with an "unfinished" woman... to me, that
>> made her so much more real. I have known women who escaped
>> from abusive relationships, and believe me, in the short time
>> period that the book takes place in, no human being could
>> *totally* recover from such a terrible relationship. (now, whether
>> a woman could kill her ex-husband while in another dimension may or
>> may not be possible... ;-))
>>
>It wasn't a matter of expecting total recovery, but I found that even
>when she started to discover herself, I missed the little idiosyncratic
>details that usually make King's characters step off the page. But then
>as you point out, if someone has been almost obliterated by abuse, maybe
>that wouldn't be realistic.
>
>Kate
IMO, Rose Madder had one of those
the-story's-over-now-let's-hurry-up-and finish-this-thing type of
endings. There wasn't much substance at all to the end of the novel.
Gord
Be alert. The world needs lerts.
Lisa Free
In article <322f62e6...@news.myna.com>, Gord.Hu...@myna.com says...
does have a tendancy to cut short his endings. It's almost like he gets bored with the
story and wraps it up as quickly as he can. The worst for that IMO was The Long
Mile.
Antti Matikka
On 7 Sep 1996 23:34:14 GMT, fr...@uniserve.com (Lisa Free) wrote:
>Gord - hate to say it but I agree with you. Although King is my favorite writer, he
>does have a tendancy to cut short his endings. It's almost like he gets bored with the
>story and wraps it up as quickly as he can. The worst for that IMO was The Long
>Mile.
I assume you mean the Long Walk?
By the amount of discussion here about it's ending, I'd say it
was rather ambiguous, yes, but I personally didn't find it a
'wrap-up' ending in a sense RM has, just a tad 'floating' ;-)
(Besides, that was not a King story, but a Bachman one, and King
has said that he writes differently as Bachman :)
Andy
Gord Hutchinson
>> IMO, Rose Madder had one of those
>> the-story's-over-now-let's-hurry-up-and finish-this-thing type of
>> endings. There wasn't much substance at all to the end of the novel.
>
>and someone (was it Bev? Sorry, my memory's going) said that King has
>said that he doesn't consider them nearly as important as the rest of
>the story. I don't usually have a problem with the endings, but RM was
>one of the few books where I got that hurry-up-and-get-it-over-with
>feeling, just as you did. Of course, the guy's between a rock and a
>hard place; people complain about the length of his books, and then
>say he should have drawn out the endings more!
>
>Kate
I think the ending for Rose Madder would have been better without the
epilogue. Up to that, he had done a fairlt good job of tying up loose
ends. In the epilogue, he was starting on a new thread or chain of
thought and since it seemed rushed, I don't think he did it any
justice.
Gord
Jim McLean
In <50t0pm$n...@atlas.uniserve.com>, fr...@uniserve.com
(Lisa Free) writes (edited):
>In article <322f62e6...@news.myna.com>,
>Gord.Hu...@myna.com says...
>>IMO, Rose Madder had one of those
>>the-story's-over-now-let's-hurry-up-and finish-this-thing type of
>>endings. There wasn't much substance at all to the end of the novel.
>Gord - hate to say it but I agree with you. Although King is my favorite writer, he
>does have a tendancy to cut short his endings. It's almost like he gets bored with the
>story and wraps it up as quickly as he can. The worst for that IMO was The Long
>Mile.
If King wanted to give RM a hurry-up ending, the last chapter
would have ended with Rosie in Bill's arms immediately following
the demise of Norman, followed by a short and-they-lived-happily
ever-after epilogue. Instead we get a subtle, extended version of
the hand-reaching-up-from-the-grave epilogue that has become
almost expected in horror films and books (and that has origins,
not coincidentally, in _Carrie_). The last 20 pages of _Rose
Madder_ put the hairs on the back of my neck up in a way that the
rest of the book didn't.
As far as _The Long Walk_ is concerned, that abrupt ending was
more a product of self-conscious artiness on the part of the young
King than any desire to wrap it up quickly.
Jim McLean | There is no Truth, there are no Facts, just data to be
| manipulated. I can get any result you want; how much is
| it worth to you?
Andrej Kluge
Hello Lisa,
LF> It's almost like he gets bored with the story and wraps it up as
LF> quickly as he can. The worst for that IMO was The Long Mile.
Well, he must have wrapped that one up so fast it didn't even reach the
bookstores.
Bye
Andrej
Just kidding--I know you meant "The Long Walk", didn't you?
Antti Matikka
On 9 Sep 1996 18:05:25 GMT, mcl...@raleigh.ibm.com (Jim McLean)
wrote:
> As far as _The Long Walk_ is concerned, that abrupt ending was
> more a product of self-conscious artiness on the part of the
young
> King than any desire to wrap it up quickly.
Thanks for saying it better than I could.
Andy