just one more page

i finished a book yesterday by one of my favorite contemporary authors. blood meridian: or the evening redness in the west by cormac mccarthy is a beautifully, although strikingly violent, written book that borders the apocalyptic genre of writing. it is true to his style of efficiency and economy of word with scenic description paramount to the story. in fact, the scenic venues of the narrative are a character worth study in and of themselves in his writing.

i'm not here to do a book review though. i'm here to admit that i wanted one more page to tell me the rest of the story. to explain the untidy closure of the story. to fill in the rest of the timeline of events. have you ever wanted that in a story? i can comfortably disclose to you that i am most often o.k. with books that end without clear resolution for all of the characters, or a philosophical ending leaving the reader questioning whether or not they read the characters correctly throughout the book (think life of pi by yann martel here). but for some reason, this ending nags at me. perhaps this is the mark of masterful authorship.

what are you reading? have you ever wanted one more page in a book? what book?