endings

[Robert Mahnke]

My neighborhood coffee shop has a shelf for the voluntary
redistribution of books (from which I recently took John LeCarre's Our
Kind Of Traitor -- recommended!), and while I was waiting in line for
my morning cup today, I espied on said shelf a copy of Inherent Vice
and used the wait to re-read the last two pages.  Say what you will
(and in some cases have said here repeatedly) about the merits of the
whole book -- the final pages and particularly the last lines totally
work for me.

Which leads me to think about how they compare to the final pages of
Pynchon's other works (setting aside Slow Learner, since short stories
are a different thing).

I don't recall how V closes.

The Crying of Lot 49 is terrific, up there with IV.

Gravity's Rainbow isn't bad, but just a little didactic for me,
elevating message over story in a way that's a little too
heavy-handed.

Vineland is, IIRC, like a dress rehearsal for IV -- or perhaps it was
just as strong and it's only that my recollections have faded.  (Note
to self: re-read Vineland.)

I don't recall how Mason & Dixon closes, though I love the book as a
whole.  (Note to self: read-read Mason & Dixon.)

I read Against The Day and I'm pretty sure that it ends, but I don't
recall how.  Maybe it doesn't really end?

I'm seeing a clear preference on my part for the California novels.

Then I start thinking about other books with terrific final lines --
Love In The Time Of Cholera and Bukowski's Post Office are two.
Neither was my favorite novel, but both were saved by their last
sentences.