Recently I read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. If you haven’t read it, read it. Now. Go and get a copy, then come back and read this.
It was romantic and gritty and funny and utterly brilliant.
I firmly believe love should win out. It’s one of the reasons I started writing, in so many fantasy books the relationship is forgotten or doomed, the lovers forever separated by fate. Ditto for action/adventure novels. That said if a book ends with a fluffy wedding and a pregnant bride it makes me gag.
One-why would a modern heroine who’s just found the man of her dreams and battled to get him want to have babies straight away? Babies aren’t fun, they are hard work. Wouldn’t the new couple want to spend some time enjoying each other first, you know, practicing?
Two-why does a wedding equal happy ending when nearly 50% of weddings end in divorce?
Romeo and Juliet is a favorite of mine, they loved each other enough to follow the other to the grave. Couples who stay together even when it would be, safer, more sensible, less painful to be apart, who fight everyday because they are in love, and they believe it will work out is, to me, far more compelling. An ending that promises they will make it is enough.
Am I in the minority?
Do you need a wedding?
(For people who want to read the book no spoilers in the comments please)
Shona
(who would still like to time travel)
6 comments:
I agree with you about the babies, Shona. Anyone who romanticises about raising babies probably never had one!! My children are my greatest achievement - and the hardest job I've ever ever had. I wouldn't trade a second of it - but romantic!! lol lol
As for weddings - they equal happy endings because all the fairy tales we were read when young said 'they got married and lived happily ever after'. The wedding isn't what makes it work, it's the commitment, tolerance, understanding and patience that enable couples to endure, whether they are married or not. I think many couples today don't get this.
You've convinced me to read the book!! :)
Gail
I don't mind the wedding and babies thing if it fits the couple in the story. That said I tend to favour the kinds of couples where it doesn't fit! Melissa James is probably a good exception here, the woman knows how to torture a 'nice' couple who want a wedding and babies until you're cheering for them to achieve that end.
One of my favourite lines is when Alyssa and Sam finally get together after however many books and lots of angst in Suzanne Brockmann's 'Gone Too Far' and Alyssa is talking about Sam's daughter with his ex - "But you need to know, Sam - I'm not going to take care of her for you. When she's with you, she's with you." If tough Alyssa had suddenly turned home and hearth mother it would have been too ick for words.
As for weddings - some very good friends of mind have been together far longer than many married couples. The piece of paper doesn't mean much. I think in the US they buy into the whole fairy tale thing more than the rest of us. And the bureaucracy drives it too. Any other relationship isn't recognised. I know of a few couples, of long standing, who had to get married for the family to be allowed to move to the US with whichever partner was moving there for work. Imagine trying to deal with that situation if you were a same sex couple.
H! :)
I agree it has to work for the couple. Weddings and babies can make for great endings but I prefer more imaginative resolutions.
For me the happy ending is when they are consumed by love and know that life without each other would be diminished. It's about the love, not about the wedding or the babies.
H. Maree mentions same sex couples but consider older couples or couples who have completed their families. There are great love stories where babies are never an option.
I actually prefer stories where you can see that even though they have found each other the road ahead will be rocky and they will have to work to stay together.
cheers
lesley
I say what's a appropriate is appropriate. The ending should fit with the couple and the stage they are at. If it's a wedding, it's a wedding, if it's not it's not.
I'm for realism. I HATE those action flicks were the hero kisses the token hot female in the end- the female he has not shown the slightest bit of attraction to until now. Suddenly they're in love. Now that's inappropriate.
Loretta
Hi!
I work for Regal Literary, the literary agency that represents Audrey Niffenegger. We noticed your interest in Audrey Niffenegger and THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and want you to know we’re giving away Advance Reader’s Copies of HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY now to bloggers who have written about Audrey’s work. To get yours, click below or you can contact me directly at hfs@regal-literary.com with your mailing address.
http://tinyurl.com/facebookhfs
Look forward to hearing from you,
Hannah
My name is Matt, and I'm also with Regal.
We've started a second contest for more chances to win copies of HFS!
If you enjoyed TTW, you might be interested in knowing that Regal Literary is giving away ten advanced reader's copies and three first edition hardcovers of the new Audrey Niffenegger book, Her Fearful Symmetry, on October 1st in a lottery to anyone who joins the facebook page as a fan and sends an e-mail to hfs@regal-literary.com. Good luck!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Her-Fearful-Symmetry/68080996784
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