I’d never thought much about this before — but endings of adult lit aren’t as difft from endings of kids’ books as you’d perhaps expect. But perhaps this is unsurprising: one of the basic social facts about adult lit is that our sense of its form, of how and why and if it works, is shaped by what we read early, unjaded.
Anyway, here are my rough categories:
7: “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” (Joyce/Dub)
and
iv. “And the room was full of petals from skylight and rafters, and all about them a fragrance, and petals, flowers falling, broom, meadowsweet, falling, flowers of the oak.” (Garner/Owl)
and
v. “The pirates died. The cat died.” (Aitchison/Pirates)
Formal lyrical flourish, the written equiv of a perfect cadence in old-skool music
i. “He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.” (Tolk; LotR)
and
8: “‘We’ll go there. We’ll live there.'”/”‘We’ll fish there. And you too.'” (Pynch; M&D)
= and now the REAL story starts (IRL)
9: “We can only learn so much and live.” (Harris/Hannibal)
and
ii. ” … now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (Lewis/Battle)
= and now the REAL story starts (in lala-land)
1: “The gun, Bill Roach, had finally convinced himself, was after all a dream.” (Le Carre/Tinker)
and
2: “Night is falling. On the first floor of the Hôtel Printania two windows have just lighted up. The yard of the New Station smells strongly of damp wood: tomorrow it will rain over Bouville.” (Sartre/Nausea)
and
3: “Then I went back into the house and wrote, It is midnight. The rain is beating on the windows. It was not midnight, It was not raining.” (Beckett/Molloy)
and
iii. “Toft had plenty of time to go down through the forest and along the beach to the jetty, and be just in time to catch the line and tie up the boat.” (Tove/November)
= and now as tales end, real life resumes
4: “All they did was make me think of Silver-Wig, and I never saw her again.” (Chandler/Sleep)
and
5: “He never saw Molly again.” (Gibson/Neuro)
and
6: “‘Yes, dammit, I said “was”. The bitch is dead now.'” (Flaming/Casino)
and
v. “The pirates died. The cat died.” (Aitchison/Pirates)
= and now as real life carries on, the tale ends (except in our deep sad hearts)