” ‘Parting can be such sweet sorrow or such putrid disappointment,’ critic Ron Charles wrote in a recent essay about the many reasons some book endings leave us cold.
“Hundreds of readers flocked to the comments section to air their personal grievances about the endings that still haunt them….
” ‘Cold Mountain’ by Charles Frazier was a popular choice. But [only one] commenter was industrious enough to rectify the alleged problem: ‘I was so angry that I rewrote the author’s ending. It only took one sentence . . . “Cold Mountain” went from being a book that I would have despised for the rest of my life to become one of my favorites, simply by changing that one sentence.’ ”
— From “Readers share the book endings that infuriated them the most” by Stephanie Merry in the Washington Post (Oct. 24)
You won’t be surprised that at least one critic vehemently begs to differ.