![]() Some last lines act as punch lines, shedding light on why a work was titled the way it was: But literature isn't a shorthand art form and what's special about last lines is ultimately what's special about the novel as a whole. Too often the famous opening and closing lines of novels become shorthand for a writer or the novel they wrote. A novel is a complex thing, and quoting beginning or ending lines is only one way to begin to explore the depth of a work. Throughout reading a novel, the author's voice has been a constant companion for the reader for 300 or 500 pages, and then that voice is gone there has to be a grand, important reason why it stopped when it did, on that particular sentence. ![]() I am interested here in how fully an author decides to engage in the outside world as their fiction is coming to an end. ![]() This month I will be looking at last lines, the different kinds of messages they send, and how they can leave the reader feeling about the novel as a whole. Last month I examined the first lines of novels and how authors use different strategies to capture the reader. ![]()
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