Our book club meeting in the library basement went totally off the rails last night...

We were discussing 'Klara and the Sun' and one member, Mark, got really heated about the ending, calling it a cop-out. It got so loud the librarian had to come over and ask us to quiet down. I just took a breath and suggested we all write down one thing we liked and one thing we hated about the ending, then share. It calmed things right down and we actually had a good talk after that. Has anyone else had a debate get that loud and found a way to bring it back?

3 comments

3 Comments

robert_burns20d ago

Actually, I gotta say, calling that ending a cop-out feels like missing the point. It's not about a neat answer, it's about what the whole book asks. Like, what is love if it's not perfect? What's a soul if it's not in a human body? The quiet ending makes you sit with those questions instead of just giving you a fix.

gibson.robert20d agoTop Commenter

That's a good point, I always thought it was just lazy writing before.

davis.linda9d ago

Okay but sometimes a quiet ending is just a quiet ending. Feels like we give writers too much credit for being deep. Maybe they just ran out of steam or couldn't figure out how to wrap it up. Not every open question is some big artistic choice.