Books: Why So Many Sad/Engimatic Endings?

I’ve read a few books lately. I’ve read some heavy stuff lately (poetry, John Le Carre, which usually confuses me for the next two weeks, Ernest Hemingway, etc) so I wanted a story that had  happy ending. I wanted a good read that had good writing that ends with a storytale ending. I wanted something that I knew was going to make me feel all warm and gooey and totally disinterested in real life. Like Disney Princess happy.

So, first I read a book by Alexander McCall Smith called La’s Orchestra Saves the World. 

Look. It’s all happy. It’s all happy. There’s all these cute little ducks in a cute duck carrying basket for a bicycle. Somehow, I know that this bicycle would make me a hundred times cooler than I already am. It’s also by the guy who wrote the N.1 Ladies Detective Agency . It’s about world war two and how this girl La creates an Orchestra in Surrey for the RAF. In the front cover sleeve summary there was a lovely little description of the story. At some point a Polish refugee was supposed to steal La’s heart and I thought:

HAPPY ENDING!!!!

YAYYY!!!

And it *SPOILERS!* was. Kinda. What actually happened was that the Polish IDIOT was too shy to ever mention the fact he fancied the knickers off of her. And THIRTY YEARS went by. He married someone else. And was unhappy. You’ve lived through a war, people? I think you can handle telling a girl you’re in love with her. Plus, there was like no motivation for him to go get married to someone else.

It was very cute and they did end up together but it was very frustrating. There are a lot of books that I like, in which they don’t end up together right away. This book just didn’t make sense. I mean, why didn’t they just say? Why? There was no real reason. It wasn’t like that Eva Ibbotson book, where Marek felt all devastated and had to go exact revenge on Hitler. This Polish block. He just……left to marry someone who immediately left him with two kids for no reason. And she took him back. After thirty years. After that long, I’d have moved on to someone much hotter and more take charge……like Ryan Gosling.

So, that book left me somewhat unhappy. It wasn’t as happy ending happy ending as I had planned. There weren’t any cute forest animals singing along happily. You know what I mean.

That Owl looks a little bit like a creeper. Just saying. Maybe he’s checking out another lady owl. Why am I picturing him with a Mr. Collins voice?

Still in search for my love story, I next picked up The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott. I did discover that Kate Alcott is a pen name which makes the authoress (or author, I suppose) more awesome. It’s about the sinking of the Titanic and this time, I felt more secure in the possibilities of a happy love story because it literally mentioned a ‘rough-hewn sailor’ in the liner notes. or whatever. Are Liner notes for cd’s? Normally, i understand that not all stories are happy, but i wanted a light book! I was specifically looking for a happy romance!!!! That’s all. I will not resort to reading a bodice-wripper because there’s no plot.I wanted good, entertaining, reading with a love story!!!! One that ended happily. That’s all and no I am not unaware of the massive double entendres that are in this post. Wow that sentence alone just sounds wrong.

It was a very good book because it was obvious there was a lot of research going on etc. The dressmaking part had to do with a servant who becomes maid to Lady Duff Gordon, designer on the Titanic, in order to try and pursue a career as a designer herself. The author is a reporter, I read, and it shows in the writing. She is best when describing people and surroundings. Her dialogue was a little……off beat. But it could be me. Dialogue is my favorite part and usually what I focus on most.

In this story, Tess, dressmaker aspiree, had to choose between this Chicago businessman who is not yet divorced and the rough hewn sailor. Anyone with breath in their body would have picked the sailor. She spent two hundred pages unsure, and nearly broke the sailors heart. AND, once again, instead of a out and out ending, it was all enigmatic and maybe……We will look to the future. Much like the movie Titanic’s ending, actually.

So, yesterday, I bought Park Lane by Frances Osborne. ON the  cover. ON THE COVER, it compares it out and out to Downton Abbey. I was like YES!!! Love story! This will be great. 

I’m only like ten pages into it and it so doesn’t have a happy ending. It doesn’t. It’s going to be moody and unsettled and depressing.

What happened to happy endings? Do they not exist anymore? Maybe part of it has to do with the difficulty of making a convincingly deep love story. People always think you’re characters are somewhat shallow if they have a happy unconflicted love story. I know. I’m one of those people. So, I guess, instead, we get a bunch of moody endings that might be happy or might not be happy. I’d actually prefer and out and out unhappy ending to an unsettled one. Make up your minds! Why can’t people just be happy at the end? Not everyone has to be happy. It can be bittersweet. But why do they have to go look into the distance and not be sure of whether or not things will work out. It’s like if Jane Eyre ended ……wait no, Jane Eyre would be great no matter what happened. It’s like………let me think. ………Persuasion, if it ended when Anne was still thinking that Hottie mc hot pants Frederick Wentworth might be in love with Louisa Musgrove.

Does anyone out there know of a good book with a good happy ending? Please let me know. It’s getting a little sad. I’m tempted to just go read A Farewell to Arms again. Last night I actually watched the Disney movie Anastasia because I was so desperate for happiness.

Help.

Here’s looking at you.