With both As I Lay Dying and The Memory of Running, I was disappointed by the endings, like many other students. I wasn't sure if this was a common trend across many of the books we've been reading, and with the not-so-happy story of Room, I wasn't expecting a happy ending either, and was hoping for an ending that wasn't too dark.
My wishes were granted, luckily, with the ending to Room. Ending this story is a difficult task. The time that Jack (and especially Ma) spent in Room will impact them for the rest of their lives, and this story will continue on throughout their entire lives. But Donaghue can't go on forever, talking about what happens to Jack over the rest of his life. This would be a tough situation to deal with, but I thought that Donaghue handled it quite remarkably.
Her decision to conclude the story with Jack leaving Room stands out. The fact that Jack moves on from Room (figuratively and literally) after visiting it one last time ends a story inside of itself. That's the story of Jack's escape from Room, and his initial time out of Room. Surely, there's a story before Jack's birthday and after Jack and Ma say "Bye" to Room, but Donaghue uses these events to create an interesting and compelling story about a situation that I had never really even thought about before.
The ambiguous ending of Room also is an important aspect to it being good to me. I thought that if Donaghue tried to wrap up too many loose ends, than the novel would lose a lot of my positive thoughts toward it. I absolutely hate it when an author decides that enough is enough and just starts bringing an end to every single story component. It's nice to leave things hanging up in the air, because it leaves it up to the reader and makes us think about it. If we know that Jack and Ma are hit by a bus on the way back from Room, there's no story to tell (Holding back the fact that that would make the ending suck.). The fact that the end of the story of Room is left up to us really makes the story, because it leaves it up to us.
The ending wasn't too optimistic or pessimistic either. Jack and Ma won't be able to completely move on and live perfectly normal lives. At the same time, their time in Room hasn't completely destroyed their lives, and there's plenty of time to reintegrate into society and become normal, everyday people enjoying life. Once again, books which force either a happy or sad ending stink, because it's hard for a reader to make their own opinion. I'm not sure if it's just me (probably the same for others too, though I don't know), but I like coming to my own conclusions on stories, so having an ending crammed down my throat can really make me dislike books or even whole series (Harry Potter and Hunger Games were both kind of ruined by the forced endings, IMO).
Room's ending was pretty good, not only because it was well placed, but because it left an ambiguous ending which left interpretation up to the reader.
