Sunday, September 9, 2012

Unhappily Ever After: Why Fictional Romances Must Always End in Gloom?



Romance is a universal subject. Love stories are found in every country and culture and are appreciated by all genders and ages, but why is there a penchant in literature to end such tales in grief and misfortune? Today, happy romances only exist in trashy novels, romantic comedies and telenovelas. Apparently, there is an unwritten law that modern fictional couples cannot live happily ever after. What provokes that fascination with doomed romances?

A friend that holds a history degree told me that the concept of “romantic love” is artificial, invented by medieval troubadours to earn a living. The idea of “Courtly Love” was based on a simple recipe, a knight pledged his love to a lady, but she had to be “somebody else´s lady.” Based on adultery, this medieval concept of romance was a sin that could only bring tribulations to these involved.



I had to prove him wrong. Romantic love has existed prior to the troubadours. You find it in mythology, universal folklore, even in the Bible. Some of those affairs involved free people, others turned around adulterous couples, but even the latter were allowed to enjoy some happiness. When he sleeps with the much-married Bathsheba, King David is sinning against God and man. To add insult to injury, David has her husband killed. The Lord is angry, the prophet is angry, lots of bad things happen, including the death of Bathsheba‘s firstborn. David makes public atonement, he is forgiven, marries Bathsheba, and they became the proud parents of Solomon, the wisest of kings.

 Moreover, if my friend was right and Courtly Love had imposed a tradition of gloomy romances, we wouldn´t have great literary love stories ending in bliss. However, such idyllic romances are not very common in modern literature due to a couple of reasons.

1.       Happy endings are an old fashioned ploy
Both, David Copperfield and War and Peace end in images of domestic harmony. We are talking about two pillars of modern literature, yet when I point these examples to cynical critics I get a “yes, but that is sooo Nineteenth Century.” However, not every novel written in the 1800’s included joyful love affairs; just think of Madame Bovary or Thomas Hardy´s works.

Agnes and David Copperfield, a rare example of a happy  marriage in fiction


But there is some truth in the fact that happy romances fell out of fashion during last century. Whenever love appears in Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway or Edith Wharton novels, we know it will come to heartbreak and parting. Once, I took a course in Modern English Literature just to find the reading list plagued with tales of ill-fated lovers. Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier begins with the words: “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” The “sad story” being a combination of messy married life, unhappy adultery and suicide. Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited begins with “Here my last love died,” and although Charles Ryder is figuratively speaking, his memories depict a man who fails in his search for love and finds solace in religion.


Compared to such tear-jerking novels, The End of the Affair seemed almost jolly. Although as much a Catholic as Evelyn Waugh was, Graham Greene viewed clandestine love with compassion. During World War Two, writer Maurice Bendix has just made love to Sarah, his married mistress, when a bomb falls upon his house and almost kills him. After the incident, Sarah breaks up with him. Two years later, Bendix finds out that fearing him dead, Sarah made a vow to renounce to her lover if God saved him. Sarah is still a Catholic, won’t divorce her husband, but her love for Maurice makes her fall in is arms again. Only death separates them. Yet, Sarah is such a strong character that she comes triumphal at the end. Prior to her death, a series of tiny miracles show her that God is not angry at her weakness, and, after her passing, Maurice accepts the existence of a Divine Presence, which is what she always wanted. I came to think that this novel almost had a happy ending.

2.        “Lived happily ever after” endings are no realistic therefore they should exist only in children’s and young adults books.
 The 21th century has definitely declared war on romantic love. The scientific community goes through pains to explain that romance is based on physiological reactions, and statistics tell us that marriages are bound to last less than two decades. With such information is understandable that we inhabit a romantically-challenged society where happy marriages and fulfilling love stories are seen as impractical and improbable, at least in adult literature.
We do find some promising love stories in YA Literature. Twilight’s Bella and Edward end up together (plus a daughter), and white magic, goodness and love triumph at the end of the Harry Potter saga. Twilight’s cheerful conclusion brings to mind the last pages of typical “girly literature.” In Victorian classics such as Heidi, Jane Eyre and Louisa May Alcott´s works, heroines’ ordeals are ultimately rewarded with blissful marriages and motherhood.
Professor Baher is Jo´s reward in Little Women

But saying that romances in YA fiction must end in harmony would be a false statement.  It was certainly untrue of the juvenile literature of my day. When I was a teenager (1970’s) books “for girls” were cautionary tales with brooding finales. Titles such as My Darling, My Hamburger, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, and Scott O’Dell’s Cathleen, Please Come Home showed the reader that reckless love resulted in unplanned pregnancies, botched up-abortions and forced marriages. Even in the controversial but less dramatic Forever, Judy Blume proved that young love was a bittersweet experience. And the most romantic YA novel I read in my youth, Bette Greene’s The Summer of my German Soldier had me crying buckets before I reached the words “The End.”

At seventeen, I was a strong believer in rewarding passion and marital bliss, but I couldn´t find it in books targeting my age, so I turned to bodice- rippers.  Heroines in Historical Romances underwent rape, beatings, betrayal and other calamities, but, by the end of the book, they had tamed their knights in soiled armors and were ready to start families in castles, manors and cattle ranches. This of course proves right those who claim that …

3.       Corny romances belong strictly in trashy literature.
If you define Harlequin romances, and other single-title heirs to the “bodice-ripper” as trash, then indeed love that lasts a lifetime is a trashy ruse.  But tragic romances were also present in more mainstream trash. Vera Caspary’s emancipated heroines never found joy in love, Jacqueline Susann´s protagonists were divided between those who died and those who ended up with men who could never make them happy. And in the last stages of Peyton Place, Allison Mackenzie has returned to her hometown after her married boss breaks her heart.
Although romance is present in every genre and subgenre, everlasting love only reigns supreme in the Romance category, a trait that forces the subgenre to be classified as “low literature.” Funny, because Jane Austen´s entire work turned around amorous dealings that would end when the protagonists, having overcome all obstacles, were seen walking down the aisle. Inspired by Austen, Georgette Heyers wrote a series of novels that became known as “Regency romances.” But as everybody knows, Austen is a literary icon, and Heyers a mere a formula-pusher. The only characteristics that bound them together were historical settings, love as the plot´s core, and closing their tales on a merry note. Would Jane Austen be considered a “serious writer” today? I think not.
Why romantic bliss was fashionable in Jane Austen times and not in  Contemporary Literature?


4.       A tragic love story is always more poignant and increases its chances for success.
I have to agree since my favorite love stories of the last twenty years, include two extremely sad bestsellers. John Le Carre is a famous writer of spy novels, but in The Constant Gardener he showed himself a master in the concoction of doomed romance. Although Tessa is killed in the early stages of the novel, her memory and love propels her husband to continue her research, clear her name and avenge her murder.

Tessa's ghost  (Rachel Weisz) comes to comfort her husband (Ralph Fiennes) in The Constant Gardener.

Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient is one of the most poignant love stories ever written, Anthony Minghella’s film version is equally moving. I made the mistake of watching the film after lunch on a working day. I was crying when I walked out of the cinema; sobbed wildly on the cab that took me to school and had to sit in the teachers’ lounge for almost twenty minutes until I collected myself enough to teach a class.



Heartrending as these two examples are, they do not hold a candle to my favorite literary romance of all times, a sample of high literature that dares to end in a hopeful note. Henryk Sienkiewicz is probably the best known Polish author in the world. Prior to the invention of the word “bestseller,” he was writing bestselling historical novels which crossed borders and oceans. His Quo Vadis is now a classic and merited Sienkiewicz the 1905 Nobel Prize for Literature. I read Quo Vadis at age nine and have loved it since. It includes two fantastic love stories: that of Vinicius and Ligia (the protagonists), and a secondary but potent romance between Petronius (a historical character) and Eunice, his slave girl.


When focusing on human love, Sienkiewicz is careful to show the transforming and beneficiary power of an emotion that transcends religions and social classes. Ligia not only converts Vinicius, a Roman patrician, to Christianity, but her love rids him of his arrogance and cruel streak. Epicurean and cynical Petronius finds true devotion in a humble slave who chooses to die with him to escape the Emperor’s wrath.  Unlike them, Ligia and Vinicius survive Nero´s massacre, and go on to live together happily and forever away from Rome. Would the novel be more “literary” if the protagonists had died or been separated eternally?  I think not.

Star-crossed lovers add pathos and realism to a novel, but what about the reader’s needs? It has been established that happy endings represent compensation for past suffering and hope for a better future. Ian McEwen’s Atonement is an example of “high literature” therefore its bitter finale has lovers Cee and Robbie apart from each other and dead. But when Briony, who has caused their misfortunes, writes their story as a novel-within-a-novel, she chooses an ending that has them living happily ever after. She claims it’s a way to compensate them for all their trials. That is the supreme optimistic promise of everlasting love even if it exists only between the pages of a book.

Briony grows up into a novelist who believes in happy endings

What is your favorite love story of all times? Does it end in a happy or sour note? Does the ending affect the literary value of the novel? When you write love stories, how do you expect them to finish?

34 comments:

  1. I can't think on one love story that's my favorite. I'm flooded with all sorts of options: Romeo & Juliet, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind . . . I'm all over the place when it comes to favorites in this category.

    Your post was excellent. I'm saving it to savor in the afternoon when I can totally appreciate all the information you've pulled together.

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    1. Thanks for your positive comments. Did you notice that all your favorite love stories have unhappy endings? Why is that? Do you recall any love story that ended in joy? Why it´s not listed among your favorites?

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  2. I recently read that all forbidden loves end in tragedy (that moral premise again). The "rule" seems true for most cases.

    One of my favorite loves stories of all times is "Love Story" by Erich Segal. I don't know why Segal chose a tragic ending since their relationship doesn't really qualify as 'forbidden' (I guess there is the social class issue, but it doesn't seem like much of an issue in this country). However, I don't think the story would have been as memorable if the characters would've ended up together in the end. There is a masochistic pleasure in crying. We want to feel emotion when we read a book or watch a movie, and sadness is one of the strongest ones. Do we feel *true* happiness when characters have a big wedding and a kiss at the end? Sometimes, but there is a fine line between feeling butterflies in our stomachs and cringing. Sadness seems to be a more genuine feeling and one most people can agree on (in other words, a sad ending is sad for all, but a happy ending may induce some eye-rolling from some viewers/readers). I don't think it's a coincidence that sad stories stay in our minds forever. Just look at the the phenomenon of GWTW and many of the novels you mention here.

    Nicholas Sparks talks about why love stories must end in tragedy here: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/20293/nicholas-sparks-talks-of-life-love-and-tragedy

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    1. Dear Sister Lore,
      It reminds me of something my college teachers use to say about plot. “Always go easy with messages, didactic belongs only in children’s lit., and fables with morals died with Victorian novels.” Writing unhappy cautionary tales about forbidden love sounds prudish and old-fashioned. Especially in an age where divorce is so easily available and forbidden relationships do well in real life. Look at Woody Allen, twenty years happily married to his stepdaughter!I love books and movies that make me cry…but not at the end. I like stories that end with an optimistic message, just like I like to live in hope of better days to come. What I remember about Love Story is the struggles that Jenny and Oliver had to go through to be together, and “Love means never to say I’m sorry” and the fact that Jenny´s illness and death brings together Oliver and is Dad, so at least there is something good coming from a death. I strongly disagree with Spark’s absolute statement “Great love stories have to end in tragedy.” War and Peace is not a great love story? Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre are not great love stories?

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    2. I just wanted to chime in on this one. First, I've never liked "Love Story". I haven't read the book, but the film caused me to roll my eyes. I never saw any real purpose for Jenny's death other than the fact to milk the readers'/viewers' emotions. It felt too contrived on the screen.

      Secondly, on the Nicholas Sparks debate, I don't agree with his whole tragedy take. His books and films are so predictable that I stopped reading them a long time ago. Plus, his stories aren't great tragedies at all! He's trying to compare his work to that of good writers, which is not what I see when I read his novels. Again, he's formulaic and milking the readers' emotions.

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    3. Thank you Sister Mary Mary. I find Sparks’s statement terribly arrogant, and since he is not writing “great love stories” there is not much to say about his excessively lachrymose plots.
      On Love Story´s behalf, Eric Segal claimed he met the real Jenny (Oliver being a student of his) and she died, so he had to include her death in his novel.

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    4. But Sister Mary, every writer tries to milk readers' emotions. It's what they teach us to do. Of course, some are more subtle than others and do a better job at it. Yes, Sparks has become predictable but he's still super successful (so he must be doing something right.) I enjoyed The Notebook (film) but I attribute this to Ryan Gosling's appeal and the setting (love the 40s!) I haven't been able to watch any other Nicholas Sparks's film without cringing.

      I was really young when I saw and read "Love Story" so this may be a factor in my loyalty and love for Jenny's character. I just remembered another love story that I liked a lot (not formulaic at all): Before Sunrise. (I believe this may be considered a cult film?)

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    5. I think there are different forms of milking emotion. One is deliberately, like Sparks does and why he's become so formulaic. The reader is just waiting for that death that eventually comes at the end. Then there are those writers who shock you with a tragic ending because you weren't expecting that to happen. One that immediately comes to mind is Cold Mountain. When I first saw the movie (I saw the film before reading the book) I certainly didn't think Inman would die, but that there would be this great, happy ending. Of course, that doesn't happen, but it SHOCKED me! No genre book shocks me anymore. But then I notice that writers of Frazier's calibre don't churn out book after book. They take their time writing the story and crafting it. I think that's what's become such an issue with books nowadays. They are churned out for profits sake and not much more.

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  3. One of my favorite love stories of recent memory is The Time Traveler's Wife; the ending could be read as both extremely satisfying or heartbreakingly tragic, depending. I found it satisfying, though it also made me cry. I wonder if part of the issue is that Romeo & Juliet and the like are not romances per se, but tragedies, and tragedies obviously must end in tragedy. Another good 'un I read recently was The Night Circus, but I'll be damned if I can remember whether the heroine and hero end up together in the end! I guess the ending wasn't paramount for me. Pullman's series (His Dark Materials) had a crushingly sad ending, but one that worked for me. Though I would have been OK if the couple had ended up together, too.

    Most every novel I read has some sort of love story in it, now that I think about it, though the love story is only occasionally the centerpiece of the plot (as in all the books I just listed). Often the love story is a mechanism to show how the protagonist changes: she (or he) will shed the lover once the transformation of character has taken place.

    This year I read "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides, which puts forth the idea that The Novel died with women's liberation. "In the days when success in life had depended on marriage, and marriage had depended on money, novelists had had a subject to write about. The great epics sang of war, the novel of marriage. Sexual equality, good for women, had been bad for the novel. And divorce had undone it completely. What would it matter whom Emma married if she could file for separation later? How would Isabel Archer's marriage to Gilbert Osmond have been affected by the existence of a prenup? As far as [Professer] Saunders was concerned, marriage didn't mean much anymore, and neither did the novel. Where could you find the marriage plot nowadays? You couldn't. You had to read historical fiction." The professor seems pretty much to agree with you there, Malena!

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    1. Ack! Forgive the typo above. I wish we could edit our posts.

      I had another thought: what about Water for Elephants? That's a literary bestseller with a love story, but I'm not sure whether to categorize it as a happy or sad love story. What do you think?

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    2. I think Sister Steph makes an excellent point: these stories were meant to be tragedies. I just finished reading "The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and the bittersweet ending didn't surprise me. The entire novel has a gothic/dark feel to it and it would have been inconsistent with the mood/theme if the protagonist would have been jumping for joy with the love of his life by the end of the novel.

      This is why romances in comedies always end on a happy note. The whole point of comedies is to make the viewer happy, whereas the intent of tragedies (traditionally) was to teach the viewer a lesson.

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    3. Dear Sister Stephanie,
      I have TTTW on mind when I was writing this post. I guess Henry´s quirk was so complex that he and Claire could never be like any normal couple. He died, but because time was not an issue he could travel back and forth and still run into her and their daughter. So, yes it’s a satisfactory endi. That is the advantage of fantasy, it grants a rewarding closure to love stories that in real life would end in tears. In the film series “The Pirates of the Caribbean”. Davy Jones kills Will Turner separating him forever from his bride Elisabeth. Next thing, Will resurrects as “The Flying Dutchman” and he and Elisabeth can share a day together, every ten years. Ohhh Eugenides is soo right. Since everlasting love in modern time’s is a chimera, we can only find it in historical or fantasy novels (my favorite genres!)
      Water for Elephants is a story of adulterous love that has a happy ending. The same happens in Memoirs of a Geisha, but going back to Eugenides, both are historical novels!

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    4. I hear you Sister Steph (typos are the bane of my existence) All you can do is erase the comment.
      I was checking late 90's bestsellers and I noticed a kind that I could be defined as “inspirational” (although it lacks religious elements. )I´m referring to books such as Alicia Hoffman’s Practical Magic (1995), Billie Lett’s Where the Heart Is (1998), and Rebecca Wells’ Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood (1996).They all have happy (and romantic) endings.

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  5. When it comes to writing love into the story, I think it depends on the seriousness of the work, the genre, and whether a formula needs to be in place. This day and age, writing seems to be about so much formula. A mystery has to tie up loose ends, a romance has to have a happy ending, a horror has to reveal the sadistic person behind the mask, etc. Sadly, this has creeped into so much writing nowadays that readers only seem to devour formulaic writing (note my comment about Sparks above). Also, books have become so predictable, and I think this might be why there's a little more of that tragic ending creeping into works that eventually make it big but aren't considered genre works. The public does get tired of the same old.

    I, for one, don't mind a good tragic love affair as long as it's done tastefully and is believable. When someone like Nicholas Sparks slaps it into every novel he writes, I stop believing the stories he's writing. It has to have a certain unexpectedness found in the story. It has to work with that final twist in the end, otherwise it's a bit of a let down.

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    1. I don´t mind a good tragic love affair, but it bothers me when it becomes a formulaic ruse as in "I will leave the protagonists sad and unfulfilled because that is the way a good novel should end." And it irks me that authors tend to develop an aversion to happy endings just because happy conclusions are part of the Romance formula.

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  6. I enjoyed your article and was glad this topic was discussed . My Favorite novels of all time, are the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. As I thought about why Jane A. is still so popular it all comes down ,for me, to the strength of the characters. Most of the characters have strong roles in the story,and not just the heroin and protagonist. This is why, I love Diana's G. novels. The characters are complex and interesting and they can all stand on their own . The story captivates you not because it was tragic or because it had a happy ending,but because the characters all became real and you felt you knew them. The ability to enrapture a reader completely has very little to do with the ending and a lot to do with the personal character and struggles of the people written about. Can we identify with them ,can we idolize them,can we hate them and not superficially,but with intensity because we know all the aspects of their lives. The shallow and simplistic novels of today give no credit to the reader. Are the writers following some kind of generic format? Do the editors think we can’t keep up with more than 2 interesting characters?

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    1. I keep going back to what it has been said here. Happy endings are not believable. We may roll our eyes if the happy couple is composed by flaky cardboard characters, but if it´s a case of strong, complex characters like the ones you are describing, then there is nothing implausible about two of them forming a promising and long-term relationship.

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  7. About the Outlander saga, sice it´s genre (somehow they managed to fit in Fantasy/Paranormal Romance) it is allowed to have a happy ending. But is it finished? I thought Gabaldon was still writing sequels.

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  8. I am awaiting the next novel with great anticipation. The endings to some of these books are sometimes complex. I am left with the hope to learn more about the lives of the characters. I know that the main characters have died,however their love surpassed that sorrow for me. The happy ending romance would be enjoyable if they were believable ,or at most unpredictable. I know, I know , the time travel thing always gets people ,but the strength of the heroes is what i am talking about in reference to believability . The unpredictability is that, in these novels, their is many heroes and that does not distract from the main characters.

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    1. You are a girl after my on heart, a character-oriented reader. My philosophy is that if characters are “good” (in every sense of the word), then they deserve to be rewarded with a happy outcome. The fact that Claire has a husband in the present and another in the XVIII century gives Gabaldon a chance to make her go through at least one happy marriage. Time-travel shouldn´t be a problem. If it´s done in an H.G. wells manner is science fiction, but I believe in Outlander, the heroine stumbles upon a magical portal that takes her to 18 c. Scotland and from then on is strictly historical fiction.

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    2. I guess I should read the Outlander.

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  9. The TTTW had me bursting into tears. It's a tragedy, yet Henrry can come back at times. Fantasy offers new options to heal the pain and I love it because of that. I enjoyed The Notebook because the dying together thing seemed a bit as a ''happy'' ending (there's also the 40's that I love so much). I never felt drawn to read more form Sparks, though.

    One of my favourite love stories must be Love in times of Cholera by Gabriel García Marquez. It goes all the way backwards, love is the tragedy first, but then it gets that lovely happy ending. It doesn't feel false to me and gets my heart more than any sad ending. There's algo Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel with a wonderful bitter sweet ending. My all time favourite is Pride and Prejudice another happy ending book.

    Don't get me wrong I love tragedy, and as a writer my fist works had all that tragic endings. When I was younger -and older than a teen- I used to think that all that happy love stories were not possible or real -maybe because I was so heart broken that I just projected myself into that-. Now felling I've found the love of my life I DO want it to be happy and last forever. Love in real life is much about that, I think, the fear of loss, about overcoming obstacles to be with that special one. It may or may not have a happy ending, yet it shouldn't be restricted as it is. Nowadays it seems that ''propper'' literature does no have the right to get a happy ending. I guess that's why I turned to fantasy and Sci-fi instead, I believe that those generes do have a bigger chance for surprise and creativity.

    As a writer I like to create complete characters, so now I'm not that obssesed with sad endings. Sometimes I'm so mean to my babies that I cannot toruture them further, I give up and get them the happy ending they deserve. Sometimes they are just headed to tragedy by their own actions and I just can't save them. No writer should marry with cheesiness or complete drama. I Believe it's just a balance issue. If the characters are good then the story will flow naturally towards its end.


    PS. Sorry for the typos, it gets hard to avoid them without editing ;D

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  10. Ohhh, pleaseee, I´m so embarrassed when you ladies apologize for some innocent typo, which is my area of expertise.
    Scarlett, at least in the novel I read, you threw in an open ending that like in Time Traveler´s Wife could lead to a second chance for the main couple.
    Love in Times of Cholera has the quintessential happy closure. Florentino has loved Fermina all his life, and he finally gets her when she is an old lady. It shows that love is eternal and ageless.
    Como Agua didn’t satisfy me as much, perhaps because I never bought Pedro´s love for Tita. I wanted her to love Dr. John, and I resented that, as Pedro's mistress, she always had to play second fiddle, bear her sister´s insults and couldn´t have babies of her own.

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  11. Oh, yeah, Love in the Times of Cholera is a great example of a happy ending that didn't feel forced or cheesy. Loved that novel!!! (the film, not so much.)

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  12. And about "Like Water for Chocolate" (SPOILERS AHEAD) my problem is that I never agreed with Pedro's decision to marry Tita's sister. (I thought it was SO lame). The ending, to me, was very disappointing. Right when they could FINALLY be together... the fire. It felt contrived in the opposite way (everything was against them from day one and they HAD to die together.)

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  13. I should add, though, that there were MANY elements I enjoyed about "Like Water" for example how the food played such an important role as both a theme and a form of expression for Tita. The family relationships, the performances. There was a lot to love here, but there were some unsatisfying aspects for me, too.

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  14. Beeing Tita I'd should stay with John. I've always thought that, the first time I read that book I was 13 o 14 years old. With a more mature reading of it I also felt a litte disspaointed with the ending. However I still enjoy the book.
    Dear Violante, while writing Innocent Dreams I had planned a sad ending for Luna, but I realised I had took to much from her and totally messed her life taking away everyone she loved. I just couldn't torture her further, It had no sense. That's why I ended up with that kind of happy second chance open finale. Many of my main characters haven't been so lucky.

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    1. I wonder why L. Esquivel favored Pedro over Dr. John. No, Luna had gone through too much. At least helping her meet someone that could be the reincarnation of her true love was a compromise between a happy ending and a realistic conclusion. Ha, I seem to recall that one of the reasons in your profile that made me ask you to be my Beta Reader was that you were not into “happy endings.” None of my novels have happy endings. Funny, because now I am strictly into fluff stories.

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    2. I owe that to Luna, not a happy cheesy ending, but a real oportunity to get her happiness, she's such a fighter. I guess in that time what I really wanted to say was that I didn't like happy cheesy endings that have no reason to be. At least I know that now :D I'm a big fan of your work, my dear friend. You know that.

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    3. Thanks Amiguis, if the L-rd grants me a couple of miracles this 5773, I will write fiction again...but for your eyes only!
      What would you consider a cheesy ending? Twilight´s?

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    4. What bothers me the most of Twilight is not thata Bella en Ed end up together, it's the idea of a lot of bloodlusty vampires just being convinced to go away without a fight by magic. That and Jacob with Bella's daughter, seems a little too much for me "he can't have the girl, let him wait some good 15/16 years and get on with the daughter". There's the Cheesiness.

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    5. Scarlett, I agree with you about the ending of Twilight. Plus it was so convenient that Bella was the perfect newborn vampire and didn't have to go thru the same troubles others did. The last book was strange for me because I wanted to know what happened (Meyer is good about keeping us intrigued and reading) but then, the things that happened were so bizarre that at some point I felt like I was reading a different series (high fantasy) where there were no humans left, except for her dad. It was also too convenient that the father was so clueless (with all those vampires hanging out in town and all those wolves and none of the humans had a clue of what was happening?) Yes, the whole Jacob imprinting thing was odd, to say the least. But I have to give Meyer credit for being original, ha! It was a totally unexpected twist.

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    6. Yeah, Bella and Edward won the game by walkover. The Jacob-Renesme match has raised many eyebrows, but not because of its cheesiness but because the author is daring her audience to be affronted by a detail that back then didn´t bother Jane Austen readers. Twilight fans were not shocked, their parents were. I can see people worrying their little girls would be stalked by werewolves claiming them as brides (after te werewolves read the book, of course). I have come to the conclusion that fantasy romances are based on old ladies’ dirty dreams. I would like to be claimed by a werewolf (preferably, one that would pay my debts)

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