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Good ending????
So, I just finished this book. [My formal review is here.] This book that I waited two years for and finally got through bookcloseouts.com.
I. Am. Feeling. Disgruntled.
It is utterly clear to me now that Paullina Simons, whatever her gifts and talents, cannot, is not capable of writing (!) a book with a happy ending.
Okay, okay. I must acknowledge that Tatiana and Alexander ended on a happier note, but it was a melancholy, blood-drenched, slapped-on happiness following approximately 500 pages of complete AngstFest (on top of Bronze Horseman misery and sorrow). A mere sop to the faithful reader who suffered along that far, a safety measure so that no one would go drinking the Drano and file a lawsuit. Certainly, there was no warm, glowing feel to it. More like a We-just-ran-the-gauntlet-of-war -betrayal-separation-depression-mass-death-everything-but -Plague-let's-check-for -body-parts-everything-still-there?-Whew! feeling.
Anyway, apparently I'm a glutton for more punishment. I read this new book, The Girl in Times Square. The girl in Times Square. Sounds like an innocent enough title, right? This is what it calls to mind for me: 
It's a cancer book.
I realized this about a third of the way in. The back flap said something about a heroine fighting for her life, but this is a mystery. I figured she'd be running for her life. With the hero. Not going through endless rounds of chemotherapy, losing her hair, getting down to 82 pounds.
There are also several alcoholic characters whose addictions feature prominently. And whose addictions are never resolved.
And, finally, the books ends, with the mystery unhappily solved and several other family skeletons out of the closet, on the morning of September 11th, 2001. The second Tuesday in September, 2001. And the heroine, Lily Quinn, who miraculously survived everything Simons did to her and is looking forward to enjoying the rest of her life with the man she loves, has just purchased a lovely new apartment in Battery Park City . I had to look this up - I had this funny, black feeling - and yes, Battery Park City, her new home, her new nest to rest and recover, is right next to Ground Zero.
So the reader's reward for making it through 600 hundred pages of cancer, alcoholism, and betrayal is an ending right on the edge of the apocalypse.
Maybe I'm just crazy, but that doesn't seem like fair recompense for making it that far. But you tell me. What do you think? I'll attach a poll. If you can't see it, click on the Good ending???? title above.