Thought of the Day: “Endings”
To The Best of Our Knowledge had a short piece this week about the best ending passages in literature. Author Jane Hamilton read the last paragraph of Robert Penn Warren’s legendary political novel All The King’s Men which just about knocked me to my knees.
"We shall go back, no doubt, to walk down the Row and watch young people on the tennis courts by the clump of mimosas and walk down the beach by the bay, where the diving floats lift gently in the sun and on out to the pine grove, where the needles thick on the ground will deaden the footfall so the we small move among trees as soundlessly as smoke. But that will be a long time from now and soon now we shall go out of the house and go into the convulsion of the world, out of history into history and the awful responsibility of Time."
Isn’t that magnificent?
What is your favorite "last passage" in literature?
Reader interactions
2 Replies to “Thought of the Day: “Endings””
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My books are all packed because of my move, otherwise I’d include quotes. One favorite ending I recall easily is from the Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald). The imagery of a boat being pulled by the current underscores the theme of trying to overcome the past. Another book with great endings is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. It’s a compilation of his stories, so I hardly know which ending is best… They’re raw, but beautiful–very well written.
My books are all packed because of my move, otherwise I’d include quotes. One favorite ending I recall easily is from the Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald). The imagery of a boat being pulled by the current underscores the theme of trying to overcome the past. Another book with great endings is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. It’s a compilation of his stories, so I hardly know which ending is best… They’re raw, but beautiful–very well written.