Another thing I would've liked to see in this book, is
Printable View
Another thing I would've liked to see in this book, is
I think the ending was perfect. I truly believe that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. So, by arbitrally changing one thing, you then have no control over everything else. Besides that, I don't think I could be satisfied with 'and they lived happily ever after'. No, the ending was perfect.
The only thing I would change is that I would end the novel a few pages earlier than King did.
Sam that would have been brutal! I don't know how I would have felt if there hadn't been any closure with Sadie. I probably would have been more screwed up than I was with King's original ending.
Haha. I agree Danpd that it would've hurt, but King's ending hurt me too. I don't know personally which one would've hurt less.
I have been a King fan since the late 1980s with Cujo (or Fire Starter) being my first book. This is my first post and I am glad it is here.
Hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to say, "If I were writing this book, I would end it this way..." Most endings are the authors and endings come when the opportunities present themselves. However, this being said, if I were writing this book, I would have...
There is always that conspiracy theory about Oswald - was he the lone gunman? As far as the book is concerned, I would say no. Jake returned several times and each time he saved, or tried to save, the Dunning family. Because the past harmonizes, there should be a second gunman, Harry Dunning (making Jake no longer his good angel) or Arthur Dunning (Tugga got killed twice, why not a third time). Jake sees both Harry/Tugga and Oswald, has time to fire only once (which is Harry/Tugga because he is holding the rifle out the window), and kills Harry/Tugga. This spooks Oswald who has his own weapon, fires at Jake, and the story resumes as Mr. King wrote it (Jake falling down, etc). Jake would feel bad that not only was Sadie killed but someone (Harry or Tugga) in that family he returned to save killed Sadie and Jake had to kill him. The past harmonizes.
I'll be fair, I never expected to write one of these, however this idea just wouldn't go away. Whether that means bad or good is hard to tell, just cause an idea won't go away doesn't necessarily make it good. Anyway, my ending.
Well . . . it's clear that the story already has an "alternate" ending. Several times (well . . . okay . . . twice, that I can remember) Jake drops the line "if there is a you" (meaning us -- the readers) while explaining the potential consequences of all his toublesome mucking about in the past, which would seem to suggest that the author was meaning, ultimately, to leave him in the past. I suppose it may have been some kind of obtuse misdirection that went right by me, but it looked for all the world as if -- as so often happens -- the story simply refused to cooperate with the author's original intent. Time-travel stories are tricksy business, though, and you risk a lot when you present your protagonist as a deeply compassionate man and then have him decide that his own personal happiness is more important than everything else in the world at the end.
As a reader, I think it works very well as written. As a writer, I would have had Jake make the same choice, but ended it without him ever learning anything about the consequences of that decision. It's a matter of personal taste, but I simply prefer open ends to neat, tidy bows on everything.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Bleah!
But I guess that's just me.
:dunno:
I really like it PN6!
with about 100 pages left, I had an idea of how I'd like to see it end.