Books Quote by Emily Barton
“Because I think of novels as collaborative enterprises between the writer and the reader, all of my novels so far have ending with endings that maybe point in more than one direction, and that seems important to me because it seems important to me that after you've invested twenty or thirty hours of your imaginative life into this narrative that you have some stake in how it ends.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: The Guardian, 2015
Barton sees novels as shared projects; she crafts ambiguous endings so readers, after deep immersion, feel ownership of the story’s direction.
In simple terms: Novels are collaborative; endings stay open for reader ownership.
Key Takeaway
Leave endings open to engage readers.
Themes
collaboration
reader agency
open endings
Mood
thoughtful
engaged
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- book clubs
- creative writing workshops
- author talks
Key Concepts
Narrative ownership
participatory storytelling
Questions to Reflect On
- Do you enjoy ambiguous endings?
- How does reader involvement shape your reading experience?
A Different Perspective
Some readers prefer definitive conclusions.
![“We [me and husband ] had been learning about the Khazars, and I had read Michael Chabon's novel [Gentlemen of the Road] the year before, so all these things are kind of roiling around in my brain, and then I slipped on the ice and I broke my wrist, and it had to be surgically repaired.” quote by Emily Barton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e93/emily-barton-18422_books_we-me-and-husband-had-been-learning-abou_182880.jpg)
![“[Michael] Chabon is arguing in favor of what is at the same time an old-fashioned and very forward-thinking opening up - of taking off the class associations with those labels, because we grew up, or I certainly grew up, feeling that, "Oh, there's literary fiction, and beneath that, there's these…” quote by Emily Barton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/049/emily-barton-18422_arguing_michael-chabon-is-arguing-in-favor-of-wh_447279.jpg)
![“I'm not for it [Brookland and The Testament of Yves Gundron ], I'm not against it, I'm just interested in it and how it functions, but I think that, in some senses, in those two novels, that was difficult for people to see.” quote by Emily Barton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e7b/emily-barton-18422_books_i-m-not-for-it-brookland-and-the-testame_613821.jpg)
