Last Lines of a Few Great Books

Thanks for that article. I would add one of my own favorites:

For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next.
But he would think of something.

~2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke

. . . and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

I've always been partial to the ending of Gravity's Rainbow

There is time, if you need the comfort, to touch the person next to you, or to reach between your own cold legs… or, if song must find you, here’s one They never taught anyone to sing, a hymn by William Slothrop, centuries forgotten and out of print, sung to a simple and pleasant air of the period. Follow the bouncing ball:

There is a Hand to turn the time,
Though thy Glass today be run,
Till the Light that hath brought the Towers low
Find the last poor Pret’rite one…
Till the Riders sleep by ev’ry road,
All through our crippl’d Zone,
With a face on ev’ry mountainside,
And a Soul in ev’ry stone… .
 
Now everybody—

Though the conclusion is certain and our destruction is inevitable, but Pynchon will not force us there. He leaves us with the last infinitesimal delta-t, which, since this is a novel after all, is enough.