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The Gabbers  Amanda"I read anything that holds my attention past the first 100 pages, primarily genre fiction of all types, ’serious’ literature, classics and travelogues." read more...
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Is Happy For Now Happy Enough?
« A Gab Giveaway! | Home | Cause a Sensation »  A couple of weeks ago, Jane of Dear Author wrote a wonderful post about the “journey of reading,” in which she stated
In Romance, we are so habituated to the concept of happiness (the HEA, for example) that I don’t think we pay much attention to the difference between a pleasurable reading experience and the happiness the couples in Romance experience. In fact, for many readers, it seems that nothing less than an iron clad happily ever after ending will suffice, because the happiness of the romantic couple is essential for the reader’s positive reading experience. Perhaps because I came to Romance late, I am more hooked on the pleasure of reading than on the happiness of the ending. Don’t get me wrong; I believe that Romances need to end happily for the couple in order to be true to the genre, but I don’t believe that the ending needs to be so happy that one cannot imagine a tragic, unhappy, fighting, sad moment between the couple. In fact, I am sometimes more pleased with the HFN ending than with the HEA ending, especially for couples who have had a particularly difficult path to love, or for those who face what are undoubtedly difficult challenges ahead. As much as I enjoyed the Anne Stuart Ice books, for example, I just could not buy the almost magical hearts and flowers ending for each couple. In the long run I could see it, but that scene in Cold As Ice, for example, where Peter walks into his home to find Genevieve out back in the garden in her lovely Laura Ashley frock, domestic as all get out, just didn’t work for me. And how could Ice Blue’s Summer and Taka go from him trying to kill her to wedded bliss within the scope of one book (and a matter of weeks, IIRC)? In a series, especially, I would love to see more HFN book endings for couples whose relationships continue to develop toward lasting happiness as the series proceeds. For me, when a couple’s HEA seems rushed, it reduces the overall pleasure I have in reading about the development of their love relationship. Maybe part of it is related to the issues Meriam discussed in her recent Gab post. But when an author invests so much narrative energy in showing two intense, or damaged, or difficult people overcoming difficult circumstances to find love, an abrupt HEA can feel disrespectful of the couple’s journey to me, even though I understand that such is not intended. There is no way, for example, that I could have believed a different ending for Candice Proctor’s Whispers of Heaven than the one Proctor wrote, which shows Jessie and Lucas free but obviously facing myriad challenges on their path to a settled, happy life together. And as much as I have wanted to know that a couple survives into lasting happiness – as in the end of Laura Kinsale’s Seize The Fire, for example – in the main I appreciate it when a book’s ending fits the emotional place the characters are in at the moment. Because for me, one of the greatest pleasures of reading, especially Romance, is being able to connect to the emotional authenticity of a story. That is one of the most powerful experiences for me as a Romance reader. The suffering, the passion, the epiphany of love, the catharsis of a struggle bested, all of that and more awaits me when I begin a book. All is potential, and so many pleasures – some expected and some deliciously unexpected – await. And frankly, I don’t want to miss any steps, any aspects of that pleasurable journey. Yet I worry a little bit that the HEA has become so standard in the genre that the HFN ending will soon be considered unromantic, or worse, not Romance. And I think that would be a great disservice to the genre, because for a reader like me, that would mean sometimes sacrificing my pleasure in reading for the couple’s overtly portrayed eternal happiness. So how about you – are you an HEA reader only, or do you like the HFN ending, too? Is your pleasure in reading dependent on the being able to see the lasting happiness of the couple? And what’s your favorite Romance ending and why? This entry was posted by Robin on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 9 Responses to “Is Happy For Now Happy Enough?”Leave a Comment |
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February 26th, 2009 at 6:45 am
This is a terrific post. I do think the “HFN” is considered a mark of a less successful romance by most readers (like coming in second), regardless of whether it is a better fit for the couple than a HEA.
I think the expectations of many readers of romance fiction — unlike Jane’s — are pretty fixed, and maybe for good reason: is it a romance any more if there’s no HEA?
February 26th, 2009 at 8:24 am
I read romance novels for the couple’s journey to love not for the validation the HEA gives to their love. I like to see two people fall in love and to see why exactly these two are right for each other. So I’m perfectly fine with HFN.
It’s funny that you mentioned Stuart’s Ice series in this post. I finished the first one, Black Ice, last week. I loved it’s ending and I expect it will stay in my memory as one of the most perfect endings I ever read in a romance. It just fit and I definitely see it as a HFN ending with some difficulties ahead for the couple. That said, the “almost magical hearts and flowers ending” for them is hinted at in the next one. Oh well…
February 26th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I know we often use the term HEA, but in fact, life being what it is (i.e. unless the characters are paranormal beings) there’s no such thing as a Happy Ever After. At some point in their futures, even the characters with an “HEA” are going to grow old and die. We may prefer not to think about that, of course. And unless we’re told otherwise in the epilogue, we don’t know that all their children will survive into adulthood, that they’ll never be sad again etc. So in many ways it’s possible to think of a “HEA” ending as a HFN one.
And, to put the other side of the coin, because I’m an optimistic sort of person when reading romances, if there’s a HFN sort of ending, I’ll assume the best possible outcome is what actually happens after the end of the novel. So I’ll probably read a HFN as an “HEA”.
I think the main problem is when an ending seems out of character or rushed. And opinions can, of course, vary about what feels rushed. I rather like Austen’s neat way of getting round that in the final chapter of Mansfield Park:
“I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that every one may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people. I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmund did cease to care about Miss Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could desire.”
February 26th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
When we are talking about HEA and HFN, I think different readers may actually be talking about different things when they use those terms. I tend to prefer a HEA, but when I use that phrase, I am not referring to a saccharine epilogue with numerous perfect children and the metaphorical white picket fence. I am referring to a reasonable expectation that the hero and heroine will have a happy and satisfying life together, not that they will never again suffer in any way. In a sense, a HEA and a HFN are the same to me for all practical purposes. What I don’t want is to be left with the feeling that there is an imminent and inevitable danger of something happening to destroy the happiness of the H/H, and if the book only continued for another 20 pages we would see all that HFN fall apart. I can have that in real life, and it is not what I want or expect in a Romance.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I’m not sure what constitutes a HFN ending, other than lack of marriage/committment? The suggestion of trouble or hard work ahead isn’t enough (for me) to consider the HEA an HFN. All relationships have ups and downs, and I don’t need to believe that a couple will experience nothing but bliss forever in order to be satisfied with an ending.
I DO want the characters to reach a point where they are ready to committ, have faith that the relationship will last, and are willing to sacrifice anything for that other person. An ending with a “let’s see if this works” or “eh, whatever happens, happens” or “I like you, but not enough to change my life” might not be enough for me. I want to believe they’re in it for the long haul.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I know what you mean about the Ice books - I had the same feeling about one of the relationships in Brockmann’s Dark of Night. I bought it, it worked for me, but I could not see it ending anytime soon in the rose-covered cottage and lots of kids. Which is fine, unless, as you say, the author sort of forces that ending upon us. Brockmann actually tends to leave things more open, so that’s okay.
February 28th, 2009 at 5:42 am
I like a positive ending that is right for the characters and the story - I don’t need to see the HEA, but I like to believe that it is possible for the two people. In my mind, that’s a little bit different from the HFN - which may not have as deep a bond between the characters.
I’m quite comfortable with an open ending, especially with a book that takes place over a short period of time, as long as there’s been enough in the characterisation and the story to allow me to believe that these two have a strong enough relationship to make it work in the future.
As an author, finding the right point to end a romance is definitely a challenge. It has to work for the characters, the point in their story that they’re at, the plot, the pacing, and the tone of the book. I’ve found that the last scene is one of the hardest to write!
February 28th, 2009 at 7:18 am
As a writer, a too perfect HEA is incredibly limiting, leaving no room to explore the characters or relationship further. As a reader, I’m happy with open-ended endings. So long as the guys are together and not horribly maimed, I can handle the idea that things won’t be all puppies and roses later on (which as a writer, is meat and drink to me of course!)
I’d much rather have a HFN when the relationship is short, and I would rather end with the lovers still exploring where they want to go with things, than an artificial soulbonding/instant attraction and overwhelming sexual drives with perfect compatibility which leaves the characters as little more than playthings in fate’s hands. I want the characters to *earn* their happiness, and I don’t care how many books it takes.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 am
Jessica: The second part of your comment is particularly interesting to me, because I’ve become more and more curious about the relationship between reader expectations and genre conventions as they develop and evolve. As a literature scholar, I tend to see genre as a function of consistent structural boundaries, but Romance seems to be defined — at least by readers — in terms of broader criteria, like the nature of the HEA. And I wonder what the long term effect of this shaping is going to be on the genre for scholars looking back on it fifty or even a hundred years from now.
Taja: The end of Black Ice is my favorite of the series, because it does seem to be the most realistic given the circumstances. I also think I bought the relationship between Bastien and Chloe more fully to begin with, and as the series goes on, it seems like the endings and the pairings become more and more outrageous (although I did like Isabel’s book, too). Although I thought Bastien got a bit too domestic a bit too quickly given his previous life, I didn’t mind seeing his and Chloe’s life evolving through the series, and I particularly liked the way he made sure his new house had adequate security, lol.
Laura: You’ve identified one of my favorite characteristics of the HFN ending, which is the chance for the reader to fill in the blanks. While I sometimes resent the amount of work a reader has to do to fill in the shorthand during a book, but in terms of the ending, I like *some* openness, because it allows readers to take different paths depending on where they want to see the relationship go specifically. And yes, the rushed or tacked on ending is what I most often have a problem with.
Aoife: It’s a good point you make about the terminology, and that’s obviously one of the problems here — how different readers conceptualize the terms and the endings themselves. Because I tend to see happiness as something that can actually develop from hardship, I tend to resonate to your sense of a couple looking forward to happiness *as a couple*, although I don’t need the guarantee in every situation.
For example, I really liked Jo Leigh’s Arm Candy, and IIRC, the ending was very much a HFN, with no discernible guarantee of longevity. And it worked for me with that book. OTOH, I loved the endings of the first two books in Kathleen O’Reilly’s O’Sullivan brothers series. The first book ended without a marriage commitment, but through the series the couple’s relationship solidifies, which worked for me because Tess was commitment phobic and needed to move slowly toward marriage. And yet the second book ends IMO very romantically with Catherine and Daniel getting engaged after he proposed to her every day for something like a hundred plus days. So it’s not the ending, per se, but how it works for me with the rest of the book.
Jill: For me, the HFN is a lack of overt guarantee that the couple will stay together forever, but at the same time, I don’t see a HFN as a *suggestion* that they won’t. If that makes sense, lol.
When I was writing this column I kept thinking about Catherine Monson’s Rangoon, a book that ends with Ram and Lysistrata committing to a life together, with a child on the way to bond them, and while I was very happy to see them reconciled (and their baby symbolic of the blending of cultures and a chance for Ram to find the happiness for his own child that he lacked growing up), but seriously, those two had ISSUES! And I could honestly see them having a pretty volatile relationship, in part because Ram had a lot of screwed-up-ness to get out of his system. And I wondered whether a book like that could get published today as a Romance, even though I think it’s a really important book in the genre and most definitely a Romance. I don’t know — for me, at least, it’s a real dilemma.
willaful: One of the problems I have with the forced “white picket fence” ending is that it makes me feel that the author has very little faith in the reader’s ability to construe a happy life for the couple. For example, I love SEP’s Dream A Little Dream, but OMG THREE simultaneously pregnant women at the end?! That was just overkill for me, and it cheapened things just a bit for me. I’m sure tons of readers adore it, but I would have been thrilled if Rachel was the only one pregnant at the end of that book.
Bronwyn: I totally believe that a good ending is the most difficult thing to write, because it pulls the entire book together and constitutes the last taste a reader has of the book, not just of the couple. As a reader, I have had to skip endings that feel too over the top or rushed or tacked on, because I didn’t want my enjoyment of a book to be soured by a really clumsy or clunky ending.
Ann: I definitely agree that when the time frame of a relationship is short, a more open ending is appropriate, because one of the hardest things for me as a reader is that the credibility of a whole relationship can be undermined with an overdramatic and overly-prescribed HEA. And IMO if an author does a good job of building a strong foundation for the couple, there can be a short relationship and the suggested promise of a lasting, happy relationship without shoving it down the reader’s throat, so to speak.
As for the couple earning their HEA, I am one of those readers who wants love to be a gift not a reward. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to see the couple struggle and strive and work for their happiness, but I get frustrated with the extent to which love is often a reward for being “good” (i.e. the heroine remain a virgin until the hero comes along; the hero gives up his duke of slut ways for the heroine) and not a gift that the couple has to make the most of through mutual commitment to their happiness.