Road Trip Wednesday: In Which I Air My Ending Grievances

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. This Week's Topic: If you could rewrite the ending of any book, how would you rewrite it and why?

I love things that make me feel.

Happy. In love. Frustrated. Triumphant.

I'm a sucker for the bittersweet, as evidenced by my favorite movies (The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love) and books (How I Live Now, Jellicoe Road).

I even love things that make me angry. At least when it comes to artistic endeavors. Atonement? I utterly adore it, even though I seethe with anger at Briony and hatehatehate her. It's such an achievement to coax such an intense reaction out of a reader/viewer. I applaud the careful manipulation of my emotions and revel in the intricacies that allow me to connect with a story on such a deep level. I don't hate books that make me hate - I adore them.

And yet, given the chance, there is one book whose ending I would change (ten bucks says my love Kirsten Hubbard knows exactly where I'm going with this one).

MT Anderson's FEED is a brilliant book. Great writing, amazing depth, a narrative that sucks you in, thought-provoking world building. It's a classic piece of young adult literature.

But I HATE Titus. Utterly, utterly despise him. He's an accurate product of his society, a realistic portrayal of the intense consumerism driving FEED's world and extremely well-written. I love that I hate him.

Occasionally Titus wakes up from his consumerist stupor, has a brief moment of insight, of realization, of questioning. His girlfriend, Violet, a girl on the fringes of society who sees how things are falling to pieces, is dying, her late-inserted feed malfunctioning until she begins to lose the use of her limbs. Titus deals with this the best way he knows how: by backing off and going shopping.

I don't want to argue that Titus should suddenly have this great, big epiphany when Violet dies and shun society, become a monk, move to Mexico and help with the environmental disaster, etc. That would be completely out of character. I don't expect a mind-blowing moment of growth or even for Titus to cry over Violet's death.

But if I could rewrite the ending of FEED, I would throw in just one more flash of insight. I would have Titus buy, not one more pair of jeans, but something for Violet. Something kind of dumb, like a stuffed animal. But it would be a move that would highlight the conflict between his grief over his girlfriend's death and the consumerism that has driven his life from day one. I don't require a big move, but would like to see something that shows me Violet is still on his mind, that she's infiltrated some layer of his psyche, has made some impact on his thought processes. A bit of possibility, the hope that there might come a day in Titus's future when he remembers Violet and her philosophies and awakens to the mess around him. I know the hopelessness is a huge part of the novel, but I do like my bitter with just a bit of sweet. Is that so much to ask?

Which book's ending would you rewrite? Hop on over to YA Highway to join the carnival.