I initially wanted to skip this prompt today because we’ve had quite a few book prompts lately, but I’ll take this opportunity to update you on my beef with Tom Perrotta. In my post, What’s with that ending?, I discuss how I have read a book by Tom Perrotta and also watched a miniseries based on a book of his, both with endings that were very ambiguous and made me a tad angry because there were unanswered questions. I decided I was going to read the other book of his that I have and then read one more book. I have Nine Inches which is a collection of short stories. During our most recent semi-weekly trip to Barnes & Noble, I picked up Mrs. Fletcher. While there, I discovered another movie that is based on one of his books that I totally didn’t realize. Do you remember the movie “Election” that had Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick? It came out in the 90s and though I never saw it, I know it was a dark comedy about Reese Witherspoon’s goody-two-shoes character running for class president. Matthew Broderick was a teacher, I guess, that didn’t like her or something. I don’t know how that ends. But based on Nine Inches I have a pretty good idea that it ends in a way that leaves us with questions about what happens next.
So, if I were to sit down to dinner with Mr. Perrotta, I would just love to ask him, nicely of course, because this is dinner, not the parking lot where I’d really like to meet him…why do you end all of your stories on a cliffhanger? They’re not cliffhangers in the traditional sense. He gives you enough context clues that you can probably figure out what happens next. And you want to know what happens next because there are unanswered questions and situations that come up that have no resolution. For example, the last story in Nine Inches is about a mom chaperoning one of those all-night, school sponsored graduation parties to keep the kids safe instead of partying all night with alcohol. Some stuff happens during the event, there’s a cop there that she doesn’t like because he pulled her over one time and was super mean to her. Then, when she’s leaving the event after its over the next morning, because of the events that happened, she slaps a teenage boy. She’s freaking out because while he deserved it, she’s worried about the repercussions of hitting the kid. She gets in her car and leaves, but the cop pulls her over and asks her out to breakfast. They had gotten chatty during the night. So she goes to breakfast with him. The end. What?! What happens as a result of her hitting the kid?! Does she get in trouble?! Does the cop find out?! Every damn story in that book had an ending like that. Tom, do you even know how to write a satisfying ending? Do you need to take a writing class? Stephen King might be available for private lessons. Do you just get tired of what you’re writing and think, “eh, that’s good enough”? Dude, step it up!
I started reading Mrs. Fletcher. She already feels like one of the many characters in his Nine Inches stories. I’ll read it to the end. I mean, the stories are good. Some even compelling. And if the ending is the same as all the others, I’ll bitch about it for a moment and then I’ll shut up about it for good. Mainly because I won’t read anything else of his. But, I’ll at least watch the miniseries of it when it comes out because apparently there’s one coming out based on it.
You’re on thin ice Tom Perrotta! Don’t let me down…again!
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