I personally wasn’t thrilled with the ending of, “The Book
of Negroes.” I thought that it was a way to predictable way to end a book. Its
like in movies where the boy and the girl break up and then you know their
going to get back together and live happily ever after, and then at the end of the
movie they get back together and everything is perfect. I know that Aminata lived a hard life, and it was great that
she got her freedom, was able to starting telling others her story to help
other Negros to freedom, and be reunited with her daughter May, but the
likelihood of these things actually happening in someone life are very
unrealistic. I find that endings like this don’t teach you much about
life. Sometimes I think that endings should be more realistic as everything isn’t
always going to work out for you in your life, its just common sense, and when
things in movies and books end perfectly it gives people a false hope that
amazing things are going to happen to them, and everything is just going to
work out for them.
I get where you're coming from. One of the questions I asked in my letter to Lawrence Hill was if he made May find Aminata again and live a happy ending to her life because he felt entitled to her or the reader for some part of her life to be good. But as for the fact that the ending didn't feel real, Aminata's description of the gruesome treatment of those around her felt real enough, and Aminata's story is told because she makes it to England to the Abolitionists. If she'd died earlier then she wouldn't be telling her story.
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