On Endings:

"The ending of a novel isn't usually very important. In fact,people never seem to remember the endings of novels (most especially crime novels--that's what makes them so re-readable) and movies (especially, once again, thrillers and whodunits). Conclusions and final explanations are often the most irrelevant--and disappointing--parts of a novel. What counts the most--and what we remember the most--is the atmosphere, the style, the path, the journey, and the world in which we have immersed ourselves for a few hours or a few days while reading a novel or watching a movie. What matters, then, is the journey along the horizon--in other words, the journey that never ends." Javier Marías, Spanish novelist and short-story writer.

First things first, Javier Marías is an excellent novelist of whom you need to be reading more. He's breathtakingly amazing. Secondly, This quote of his, which comes from a series of questions at the end of his short novel Voyage Along the Horizon, echoes my every sentiment regarding endings perfectly. Endings are, always, the part of novels I hate to read to the most, and I hate them even more when I can sense that the writer is trying, trying ever so hard, to smoothly end the novel in a conclusive and audaciously artificial way that just doesn't happen anywhere else in the world other than fiction, and I can catch the scent of an incoming "suddenly" epiphany from a mile away. Let the story linger, let the threads extend allusively, let the pieces fall where they fall, and then step away. Tie nothing up. Life goes on. My favorite books are the ones whose covers I close and wonder, with joy and awe, what comes next for these characters, where do their lives go from here? I'll never know, and that's the tragic beauty of it. My favorite books are the ones whose endings seem to end everything I've just read and yet, somehow, end nothing at all. My favorite books are the ones whose endings explore, explode, and dive into the absolute mystery and confusion present in this life, not attempt to wrestle it into a controlled, understandable, and safe submission.