It’s our last week to discuss A Game of Hide and Seek, officially, but if you’re late to the party, and are still reading — even if quite some time has passed — please, feel free to comment.
But for those of us who have read the novel through already, and have already chatted about all the other bits, there’s one aspect of the novel that we’ve all faithfully steered clear of — so far, happy to avoid *SPOILERS* for those who were still reading — that I think we’re all itching to discuss.
If you have not finished reading, and like to discover books at your own pace, relatively unaware of what lies therein, save this post until later. But this is one novel whose ENDING begs to be discussed.
(Did I mention there are *SPOILERS* below? I’m spoiler-phobic. Once I mistakenly read a discussion about Vikram Seth’s million-page novel A Suitable Boy, when I was on page 500, and someone spilled who the suitable boy is: I’m still on page 500, and I haven’t yet forgotten which character it is.)
But. The Ending. Oh, wait! I just thought of another kind of spoiler.
For those of us who have read Nicola Beauman’s The Other Elizabeth Taylor, it might be tempting to spill out details about her personal life that we’ve learned from reading that biography, so if you’re feeling so inclined, please mark your comment with a spoiler alert as well, as readers will expect spoilers for the novel but not the biography. [If you don’t add an alert, I will try to catch it in an edit.]
So. Here it is. The Ending.
“He heard a car slow and stop outside the house. A door was slammed. The footsteps across the pavement were light and quick. He raised himself and slid his feet down to the floor. The sound of the door-knocker seemed to be banging in his own heart. ‘She is coming,’ he thought, and he looked up through a shifting mist and saw her face. She put her bunch of flowers down on a chair and said his name and took him in her arms.”
What do you think?
If you were a fly on the wall, or a wasp (as Elizabeth Taylor seems more fond of including them in her fiction), what do you think that you would have seen in this scene?
Who is really in the car? What is their true intent?
Does your opinion rest in the text? Or in imagination? Or personal preference? Or a combination of the two? Or are you basing it on other works by/about Elizabeth Taylor?
If I remember correctly from Nicola Beauman’s biography, American readers were not appreciative of the ending. Do you wish there was more of a ribbon tied on things? Do you feel it weighs more on the side of a “cheat” rather than a resolution? Or are you happy to imagine your own next paragraph?
In other conversations, some of you have mentioned that you think the ending is perfect. Can you think of any other endings which left you with the same sense of satisfaction? In Elizabeth Taylor’s works or otherwise?
Are you usually pleased with this kind of ending, or is there something about her particular way of approaching it that left you unexpectedly satisfied? If you could have a sequel (magically), would you want to read it?
Other event posts: Introduction, Week One, Week Two, Week Three, LibraryThing, The Elizabeth Taylor Centenary, Facebook Page.
Endings which are left to the reader to unravel are my favourite kind, so it’s wonderful to have company on that idea. Although usually (and not in this case) I feel as though I *know* what the ending is, even though it’s open-ended. In this case, partly because my opinions were influenced as much by what I had read in the biography as the novel, I found myself much more undecided.
I never thought of his having hallucinated, but when I re-read it, after the comments here arrived, I wondered how I could missed that possibility; well, it was because I wanted to miss it, really, because I don’t LIKE that ending, although I agree that’s it’s suitably ET in nature. And, oh, the flowers, Christy, I hadn’t noted that either (really, where *was* I?!): but how perfect, and how quintessentially ET in its detail!
I liked the mysterious ending. I wasn’t sure if she had come for a final goodbye or if it was a fever-dream of Vesey’s. But I really liked that the bunch of flowers was included because that harks back to one of their adolescent walks and also to Vesey’s comment to Charles and Kitty that he remembers that Harriet was always picking flowers.
*smacks forehead* It’s all a dream during Vesey’s final moments?! Yes, yes, yes … that makes SO MUCH SENSE.
Mind you, I was completely fine with the ambiguous ending and really just thought Harriet returned for one final good-bye. I never for a moment thought she actually left Charles. But I simply adore this new theory, “poetic” is a great way to describe it.
Yes, I saw it as a dream/hallucination of Vesey’s – I don’t think I really thought Harriet was there and that’s exactly how I think Vesey would want to die so he brings Harriet to him even though she isn’t literally there. But that’s what is so lovely about the ambiguity – it’s very poetic really and I think allows the reader some intelligence in being able to make up his or her own mind. Kudos to ET for not giving in and making the ending straightforward!
I think that in a way there was no real ending for Harriet and Vesey – if indeed he does die – then yes he would live on in Harriet’s mind – as he had done for many years. I love the image portrayed in the final paragraph – yes it is ambiguous – I do like that. I wouldn’t want to read a sequel – would much rather leave it as it was.
There are several ways of reading it. It could be a simple bitter sweet leave taking. Though when I read the book a few weeks ago – I found the car door slamming and Harriet arriving out of the blue almost seemed odd – hadn’t Vesey and Harriet already said their goodbyes? – could this have been a dream of Vesey’s? he’s lying sick upstairs in his mothers house – and he’s longing to see the person who he knows loves him most in all the world. Then there she is to comfort him in his final moments. I didn’t get that straight away – I’m a bit slow sometimes – but now looking at it again I wondered.
I personally love the ending. I think it’s very open to interpretation, presumably deliberately so. My reading of it is that Vesey dies – he’s hit the buffers in his life and health and really has nowhere to go. Harriet will never leave Charles and be with Vesey and Vesey is any case too flighty to ever settle down to any sort of normal life. But I think the ambiguity is nice because if you want to see the ending as Harriet coming to Vesey you could do. I just don’t think that ET is that kind of writer. I normally like resolution at the end of the book but I found myself quite satisfied with this.
I can imagine that some readers *would* be unhappy with the ending but I applaud ET for sticking to her guns. After all, nothing about Vesey and Harriet’s relationship has been cut and dried, so why should the end?
I haven’t said so before, but I found the introduction of Betsy’s fascination with Vesey to be quite intriguing (especially as Betsy is a diminutive of Elizabeth!) I imagine that Vesey’s tragic death would cement his place in her heart even more!