For Hammett's short stories, I thought the endings of "The
Scorched Face," "Fly Paper," "Dead Yellow Women, and
especially "$106,000 Blood Money" surpass the pretty good
ending to "The Gutting of Couffignal."
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Wohlforth
To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Best Endings
Let's go classic! Is there a better ending in
hardboiled fiction than
the one in Hammett's "The Gutting of Couffignal?"
The last line of
which is: "Didn't I steal a crutch from a
cripple?"
Tim
On Mar 26, 2007, at 5:56 PM, Nathan Cain
wrote:
> I've gone through the Rara-Avis archives, looking
for a discussion
> on the best endings for noir novels, and I've found
a lot of separate
> discussions about the endings of various novels,
but no discussion (
> at least recently) of endings in general, and what
makes a good
> ending. It's been said that ending a work of
fiction may be the most
> difficult part of writing it, so I want to open up
the floor as to
> what makes a good ending, and what novels have
them.
> I'm not just talking about twist endings, either. I
just finished
> Jason Starr's The Follower tonight, and it got me
started thinking
> about this. In terms of plot it is a fairly
conventional thriller
> (think Fatal Attraction where the genders are
reversed and everyone is
> young and single), but the denouement is anything
but conventional. A
> less skilled, or more conservative writer would
have made it a happy (
> or at least happier) ending, but Starr writes a
scene that shows the
> reader the severe psychological damage the main
character has endured
> and raises questions about whether a happy ending
will ever be
> possible. It's a simple and devastatingly effective
scene.
> To talk about a book that's actually out, I think
the ending to
> Starr's Hard Feelings is also a great one. It had
me laughing out loud
> and, if you've read the book, you know that that is
just wrong. I
> still remember the last words of that book. It made
that kind of
> impression. The EMT's words to Richie Segal, were
again, simple and
> effective.
> I think a great ending is one that offers the
reader a surprise,
> but not in a "The butler's twin brother did it!"
kind of way. It's one
> that plays with the readers expectations, like the
end of Thompson's
> The Getaway. I think it can be as elaborate as
Thompson's ending, or
> it can be as simple as the single line of dialogue
at the end of Hard
> Feelings.
> Now, what does everyone else think?
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 27 Mar 2007 EDT