Was anyone else suprised at how Staggerford ended? It seemed like all of a sudden Miles was dead. Did the author give us any clues that pointed out that this might happen? It totally caught me by suprise. The ending almost seemed to end too fast for me to be able to get the full effect about what happened. Any thoughts?

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2000

Answers

I thought that miles life was slowly going down hill but never assumed that he would be shot in the head and die. I don't think that Hassler gave any hint that his life was going to end, maybe be a little difficult and kind of lonely but never dead. Hassler never really slows the book down so that the reader can get a feel at what's happened, it's like they just keep going on with their lives.

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2000

I was very suprised by Staggerford's ending!! I didn't ever see it coming at any point in the book. I even had to go reread the part where Miles got shot, because I wasn't sure I had read it right, I was just sure that it couldn't have been Miles that was shot! To me it seemed so abrupt, one minute everything is calm and going good and another minute, Mile's is dead! But that's how things like that really happen, they take you by suprise! I think it was a fitting end to Miles life. Had he lived, I'm not sure what else he could have done to improve the town and it's people. Miles came in, did the good he could, and then he died, that was it. It seemed to fit Miles life, that it would end so suddenly, and not make much of a sensation doing it. He led a quiet life, and that's how it ended too, it didn't make much of a sensation.

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2000

Yes I was surprised at the ending of Staggerford. I think that I could see a death of someone coming and that it was probably going to be Miles. But, I did not have any idea how it would happen. I was thinking maybe during the Indian meeting, but when he got shot it was a total shock to me.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2000

I was completely surprised by the end. I thought that someone was going to die but not Miles. I thought Beverly might get killed, or Mr. Workman to make Anna Thea available. I read it several times just to make sure I had read it right. I was very surprised that it was Miles that got killed.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2000

I was also very shocked that Miles died. I also had to go back and reread that part of the book because I wasn't sure I had read it right. It seemed to me that Mile's life was slowing down but I just thought his life was kind of slow and calm and so it would continue to be that way. I never expected he would die. I suspected someone else would, but never Miles. That would have been my last guess. I don't know that I ever really found any clues that pointed to him. But it was an unusual ending.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2000