Endings are hard.

As a writer I’ve never managed to write a decent one. I blame that on Journalism school and inverted pyramid where we were taught to sort of quit rather than bring a story to a nice conclusion.

As a reader I’ve been tough on writers whose endings let me down, like a Russian gymnastics judge I’d be on the look out for the slightest ankle twitch, a bobble of the knee. I wanted the authors I read to stick the landing and if they didn’t I’d deduct major points.

This is a long way to explain that I loved Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! even though the ending was disappointing. But the journey there is so good that not even a dud ending could ruin the magic she creates.

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