The Beginning is the End?

No, not the Smashing Pumpkins. But literally the beginning is the better half of many of the novels I've encountered. Normally, I would expect books to get better the farther you get. Like wine, finer with age? The intensity and appeal of the book should only heighten the further along the reader gets.

So now I'm on yet another book where I'm pushing myself to finish it. Books of the like tend to grab me in the beginning, take me through with eager interest, and then break my heart during the conclusion. Frankly, the ending should be the accumulation and climatic point of it all. This is not always so with some of my favorite books. It's a rather bittersweet feeling.

Example? Where the Heart Is follows the story of a young mother, deserted by her boyfriend, and trying to make a life for herself in the middle of nowhere--literally the middle of nowhere. (The story takes place in some remote town in Oklahoma.) From the beginning, it's a captivating tale. Witty, touching, and even suspenseful at moments. Yet the last few chapters took me just as long to read as the first 300 pages of the book. I became so bored with it, that I ended up renting the movie and watching the conclusion of the story, rather than reading it.

Unfortunately this isn't the first book I've encountered like this. The novel I'm moping through now, Those Who Save Us, was completely captivating three quarters of the way through. I couldn't put it down. It focuses on a woman of German and Jewish descent trying to discover her family's past during World War II. Now, in the conclusion, I once again find myself bored with this originally gripping novel.

Maybe it's my small case of A.D.D. or perhaps authors need to keep up the pace when writing. But whether it's me or the writers, it's beginning to be quite a disappointment when I read.