Tootfinder

Einde kabinet: PVV verlaat coalitie
https://www.rtl.nl/nieuws/politiek/artikel/5511971/overleg-coalitie-pvv-wilders-partijleiders-vvd-bbb
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I've never written a novel or any other intensely-plotted work of fiction, but anyone who has read or watched it played a lot of stories can probably also recognize that some authors just aren't good at endings. They're great at setting things in motion, at keeping the twists and turns coming, at the soap opera style of drama. But they just don't have the craft necessary to tie things together into a satisfying conclusion. I imagine it's much harder than the process of getting things going out keeping them moving, since you both have to wind down all the various threads you've spun up and balance satisfaction with believability.
I just finished Girl Gone Viral by Arvin Ahmadi, and it has a bad ending. The beginning is fine, the middle has plenty of drama to keep you wanting to see what happens, but the ending is murky, unsatisfying, and manages neither veracity nor satisfaction (even discounting the biggest next step that might reasonably have been left there to make room for a sequel).
Given the other issues with the book, from poor politics, to inauthentic characters, to a techno-optimism that feels as bitter in this moment as it is far from the mark in its predictions, I can't recommended it, despite having read through to the end.
#AmReading

"In Boston, between 1709 and 1713, townspeople protested vigorously and then took extralegal action when Andrew Belcher, a wealthy merchant, refused to stop exporting grain during a bread shortage in the city...he chose to export grain to the Caribbean, at a handsome profit, rather than sell it for a smaller profit to hungry townspeople, his ships were attacked and his warehouses emptied by an angry crowd...Bostonians of meagre means learned that through concerted action, the powerless could become powerful, if only for the moment. Wealthy merchants who would not listen to pleas from the community could be forced through collective action to subordinate profits to the public need."
- Gary B. Nash, "Social Change and the Growth of Prerevolutionary Urban Radicalism" in The American Revolution (ed. Alfred F. Young, Northern Illinois University Press, 1976), pg. 11
#history #politics #america #quote