Closing lines
 

What is the best closing line of a novel? I found this list (in PDF) compiled by The American Book Review:

http://americanbookreview.org/PDF/10...rom_Novels.pdf

There are fewer resources for this one, but I like the following:

If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who. –Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (1963)

"Well, I'm back."

Lord of the Rings

My current user title is supposedly one, but I really thought it was the last line in the movie but not the book. I guess they would know, though.

I thought this thread was going to be about the last thing you say to someone if they're pissing you off and I was going to give you all my line...but I guess I don't have to now.

I give the fruit jar a swat with my Stetson and a hundred phosphorescent dots of light explode up into the night sky, winking like muzzle flashes in a treeline, a hundred Alabama lightning bugs, alive and free, and glowing, like sparks from a fire.

- Gustav Hasford, 'The Phantom Blooper'

'The Phantom Blooper' is the sequel to 'The Short Timers', which 'Full Metal Jacket' was based on.

It takes place about a year after the events of 'The Short Timers'.
After Joker was rescued from the VC village where he was held after the Battle of Khe Sanh.

The Stetson was the property of Cowboy.

It took me a while to remember that the nuclear bomb in the basement was connected to, amongst other things, a light meter.

And they lived happily ever after

"And it was still hot" - Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are)
But I admit, it's to book that preceeds it, not the last line.
I mean, that means nothing, if you have not read the book. When you have, it's like a warm hug and a lick on the neck.

So I am suspicious of this list because so very few stand alone.
(Or is it because I haven't read them all?!)

I love you Sundae. (And Max too.)

Luckily, there was a stall nearby where you could rent scooters from guys with green wings.

It took the police five hours to take him down.

That's exactly the sort of thing Hitler would have said you nazi!


Oh, wait, does it have to be a novel?

Are you comparing me to...

Oh wait, that's your quote.

Looking one up so I am not fumbling around in the dark am

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
- The Great Gatsby

Is it possible for anyone in Germany, nowadays, to raise his right hand, for whatever the reason, and not be flooded by the memory of a dream to end all dreams?
Walter Abish, How German Is It? (1980)



I like this one.


…and to all you other cats and chicks out there, sweet or otherwise, buried deep in wordy tombs, who never yet have walked from off the page, a shake and a hug and a kiss and a drink. Cheers! –Gilbert Sorrentino, Mulligan Stew (1979)