Last month[May] I read and wrote about a book called 'Gilead.' Yesterday I finished the sequel to that called 'Home.' My title for that book is Home: A Story with no ending!' Ever since I read the 'Tiger or the Princess' in school I've enjoyed stories that let you make up your own ending, but not this one. Everyone likes an ending to a movie, and usually a good ending, sometimes even a bad ending is better than no ending. I don't know if the author was creating a setting for a sequel or not, but she certainly didn't bring closure. Then again maybe closure to the author meant passing on the mantle from one generation to the next one; for she left a bundle of loose strings. The author had a warm way of keeping us wanting to hear more about the other side of the story from Gilead, and she also kept us subtly updated on moderninity as it invaded Gilead. I was so excited to see whether or not Jack found his soul, how would the 'old Reverend' breath his last breathe, would Gloria end up staying at home, what would Teddy do; yet not one of those threads was tied up. But the last two pages, in a somewhat mysterious way, through a small child named after the Rev. Boughton, brought them at least to a meeting place; perhaps the 'meeting place' is closure? All throughout both of these books the spiritual wisdom 'oozes' from its pages. I will definitely have to go back and read both of them again, maybe the next time in a setting where I can read them together. I found myself so wrapped up in the hope that Jack was finally putting his life together, when just at the wrong moment, as has always been the case, he decides again to leave. Maybe there's a spiritual lesson for us there in that when we sense we are being spiritually challenged we too try to find a way of escape.
HOME, Robinson, Marilynne. New York, NY. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Publishers 2008
ENJOY!
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I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy reading non-fiction so much. Most of the time, I already know the ending and just want to learn the in-between stuff.
ReplyDeleteI will have to read this book... Life isn't always neatly wrapped up except for the body that goes into the casket...
ReplyDeleteEd.......... but the challenge to form an ending that you try to keep as objective as possible is often refreshing
ReplyDeleteSage........... the bodies in this one don't even make it to the casket - yet@
Stories with ambiguous endings go back a long time. One of the earliest in German is a poem about two soldiers, father and son, who face each other in single combat on the battlefield to decide the fate of their respective armies. We don't know who won.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Sherm ..... would you by any chance remember that poem; I would love to read it, thanks.
ReplyDeleteEutychus, I respond to your request.
ReplyDeleteCheers.