end of NL and paper

I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy read and a good story line. I had a hard time putting this novel down and it was actually fun for me. The end of the book was pretty surprising. With Clarissa so set on trying to find her father, or the rapist of her mother, I was shocked to see the book ending without actually talking to the father.
When Clarissa saw her mother, I felt like it was anticlimactic. Vida built up the suspense so much, and then the apathy of Clarissa’s mom made the reuniting of mother and daughter not so interesting. I actually think I got a little angry when I read it. I wanted something else to happen to make the moment more powerful or special. I do not think this moment had to be an embrace or loving relationship to follow and create a happily ever after type storyline. I do not think that a fairy tale ending would fit properly with this book anyway. I feel like more emotion out of the mother, a fight or sudden outburst from Clarissa would have been more exciting from all the rising action that had led to this point. The walking out to the room, the separation and lack of conversation was frustrating to me, and I would assume would be quite frustrating for Clarissa. That is probably what Vida wanted to go for while she was writing this segment, but I am still not sure if I agree with the storyline at that point. I feel like the “falling action” from this climax really was a quick drop off, or at least that is what it felt like to me. The ending wrapped up very quickly, and to be honest, not the way I would like it to. I did not feel any closure with the relationship. I guess there was closure with her mother, but again, I was not very happy with the reunion, which makes that closure not seem good enough for me.
I really wish that she would have had some interaction with the rapist. I know he is insane, but I feel like more information on him would be helpful. The reader only gets little pieces of information, which was fun to put together as the story unfolded, but yet in the end, I still am unsure of this rapist character. That might be a good character to do some back story on for my paper.
The paper is full of possibilities for me. I have a lot of ideas, but I am not sure which one to pick out. I feel like doing a close reading is always interesting, I just would not know which pages to pick out of a whole book. I think the best would be something from the rising action, so I could connect the foreshadowing with actual events, and also have enough background on some of lives of certain characters.
I think doing a narrative of the rapist would be challenging. It is difficult to write, because I would have to make a lot of crucial decisions. Some of these decisions would be if I make him a decent character at first, or was he always a bad man, why he did what he did, what kind of mental problem does he have, and was he always insane, or did certain things in his life make him crazy? There are many unanswered questions because of the lack of knowledge about him. I think this would be difficult in the sense that I am not sure how this character should be since rape is such a sensitive issue. I am not sure I have the knowledge to write something involving such a tragic event.
Another one of my options was to rewrite reunion with the mom, and ultimately rewrite the ending of the book. I think more drama with the meeting would be more interesting and climactic as opposed to how it is now. I would also include a meeting with the father. I would make it brief since we do not know much about him, but to give her closure that she found him and that it is good that he is not in her life. Also more story with Anna Kristine would be interesting because she knew about the situation the whole time and sought Clarissa out. I think that was a very interesting twist, so going into more detail would be a good addition.
Finally I was thinking I could possibly do something involving a narrative with Clarissa’s future. The end of the book quickly skims through Clarissa’s life and how she can forget her past. I personally feel like you cannot escape your past, so I would make her revisit some of the place she has gone before, possibly more interaction with Anna Kristine, who would be an active grandmother in the child’s life, or even running into Pankaj at some point to introduce him to his daughter. Like Clarissa’s father, I feel like there was not much closure on the relationship with Pankaj, she just left like her mother did to many people. I finally would include something with Jeremy. He was left out of the majority of the book, yet he is still should be a big influence on Clarissa. It is difficult for me to understand how people could leave loved ones, let alone the ones that need family the most. I think Jeremy should be revisited in the end of the novel, and possibly Clarissa should include him in her new family. Since I feel like the past cannot be forgotten, I do not feel like Pankaj, Jeremy and all of the other characters can be left without any trace in Clarissa’s new life.