Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Best 100 Closing Lines From Books

The Best 100 Closing Lines From Books

7 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Hard to beat THE GREAT GATSBY.

Bud said...

A lot of good stuff here (I've probably read only ~ 1/3 of the listed) but for pure symphonic grandeur, "You Can't Go Home Again" is hard to beat: (like Faulkner, you've got to cut Wolfe a little slack as to what constitutes a sentence)

Something has spoken to me in the night, burning the tapers of the waning year; something has spoken in the night, and told me I shall die, I know not where. Saying:
"To lose the earth you know, for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth----
Whereon the pillars of this earth are founded, towards which the conscience of the world is tending--a wind is rising, and the rivers flow."

Dave Zeltserman said...

1984 has a great closing line. To be a truly great closing line the whole book has to lead up to that one line. That's where I personally think I excel, and I'll put Small Crimes, Outsourced, Pariah and The Caretaker of Lorne Field closing lines up against most of those.

Max Allan Collins said...

"It was easy," I said.

I, THE JURY, Mickey Spillane

Jerry House said...

I, THE JURY was the first one that came to my mind

Anonymous said...

I, THE JURY indeed.

LORNE FIELD was indeed pretty chillng, Dave. Great stuff.

Jeff

Deb said...

I always liked the ending of Samuel Beckett's MOLLOY: "It is midnight, it is raining. It is not midnight, it is not raining." Seems to sum up Beckett's entire approach right there.