Good Endings

I do so love a good ending.

If you've been wondering why Cranky hasn't posted this week, it's because I've been spending every free moment reading Harry Potter. Well, not every free moment. I got very close to the end Monday night, and I made myself stop reading to prolong the end. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to those characters. Tuesday night, after Ainsley and Jason both were in bed, I savored the last chapters in complete privacy so I could cry if I wanted to, cheer if I wanted to, and pop open a beer if the ending left a bad taste in my mouth. Alas, the first two happened, but the last wasn't necessary.

I was in a contemplative mood all day yesterday. Not because Ms. Rowling didn't do justice to the most beloved series of "children's" books ever. I was pensive because of the finality of it all. And the simple beauty of her ending.

So many of the books I've read and the movies I've seen in the last decade have had open endings. Everyone got so uptight last month over the abrupt, open-for-interpretation finale of The Sopranos, but to me it just seemed part of a larger trend. It's become popular to end things by not really ending them. By leaving at least one big question unanswered. Like, what the frick was in the suitcase in Pulp Fiction? And even when contemporary movies and novels tie up all loose ends, they often do it with a twist. I love twisty movies like The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, and The Prestige, but I don't really think it's an ending when the audience's first reaction is to head back to the menu on the DVD to watch it a second time. Only in a second viewing can you really piece the story together and have a feeling of, "And NOW I get it."

It was good, then, to have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have a real end. No cheap tricks, no set-up for Harry Potter: The College Years. We got the answers we needed. We saw the future. No Potter fan should feel cheated. Simply...beautiful.

Thank you, Ms. Rowling, for giving us these characters and this story. And thank you for giving us a good ending.