A website should exist where we can write to the author and ask why a book ended a certain way. Or, if there are holes in the plot, we can demand an explanation. I'm infuriated at rececntly finishing a real page-turner, only to find the ending was ambiguous - and no one else who has read the book understands the ending either. Grr.-- Snippity, May 13 2001 You're not alone... http://www.amazon.c...os/ASIN/0749325054/ [egnor, May 13 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004] The answer to the question is always "Because that's the way I ended it." If you need to pursue it further many authors have web sites and email addresses (as do many publishers). Perhaps the author is a realist, real life is rarely unambiguous. Perhaps you missed something. Is the book the first part of a series? (For that matter what was the book?)-- sirrobin, May 13 2001 Yes, I'm not sure why this needs its own site.
Popular authors often have a fan community that maintains Web sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, FAQ lists and the like. If the author's works are notoriously ambiguous, there's usually a lot of hypothetical discussion, and anything the author says that might clarify it is usually siezed and repeated.
At least, that's true in the sci-fi world, anyway; I'm not sure if fans in other genres are equally tenacious.
What were you reading, in particular?-- egnor, May 13 2001 The book was just a silly novel - "Cruel Venus" by Susan Lewis. But it kept me turning the pages all night to find out who committed the murder, and then at the end, we still weren't told.
My sister then read the book of her own volition, and sent it to me to see if I could figure out what was going on - so she'd missed the point also. I did log on to the publisher's website, but there is no facility for discussing the actual books.
Maybe another way to solve problems like this would be to have the library put a "flag" on a particular book, so that the next borrower can finish it then contact the previous borrower for a discussion on plot, ending, etc.-- Snippity, May 13 2001 I really hate when they don't figure out whodunnit. Like that Jack the Ripper series of books or the Kennedy assassination or...-- sirrobin, May 14 2001 Prominent Lunatic. That sounds like a good name for a band.-- globaltourniquet, May 14 2001 random, halfbakery