Even if I had not seen the movie, I would say that the ending of this book is completely different than I would have expected and comes along very jarring.
I would have thought that a novel published in 1990, even if it was about the breakdown of a domestic unit in 1960, wouldn’t be afraid to leave the parents separated at the end. Having them reconcile really changes the events of the novel in my head, like everything that happened was a bad dream that Joe never fully understands, but sometimes the human animal acts in weird ways for ambiguous reasons.
by Pretend_Weather3573