What Happens At The End Of Red Side Story?

A very pleasant ending to ‘Red Side Story’. Eddie and Jane of Earth, as usual, trying to outsmart the System. Just like the rest of us. No magical solutions here. And in the end it’s just so funny and strange and another commentary on our current reality. That final action by Jane is so tiny and powerful and Eddie’s fate, well, you can cheer or cry. The satire in the last few chapters is so powerful and the author does not resolve any of the knots that he created. He simply leaves them there for you to untangle.

Red Side Story by Andy Robb follows the bizarre but entertaining journey of Eddie, Jane and several other key characters in a bizarre but colorfully-divided world and concludes with a feeling of having been swept away in a wild but stimulating fantasy only to collapse back into a strange but mundane reality. The final scenes with Jane are truly moving and all the more so in that she achieves nothing and has no triumphant procession but is instead shown in several brief moments of resistance to the status quo. The downfall of the System is not a dramatic event but slowly-dying rust in the corridors of an impending collapse which is no less potentially-destructive for being drawn out in such a manner. In short, Jane’s quiet but determined human resistance of the evil Reds – in such a Green-dominated, war-torn world – is poetical but sad and in many ways a punchline or conclusion to a running joke as he’d lived. Interestingly, it seems that author Fforde leaves many loose ends, especially in relation to the Reds and the Greens not resolving their bitter conflict in some magnificent or even adequate manner to bring satire that is far too realistic and relatable. I was especially left at the final page wondering if in fact her quietly human action was at last sufficient. And that seems to be the very point of it all: we’re not given a happy ending, only an inquiry into what we might do now.

In terms of closure ‘Red Side Story’ doesn’t deliver, but rather throws a rock at the reader to see the splashes and look at the lives left behind after the blood has dried. The manner in which Eddie’s story unfolds to his conclusion is both apt and exacerbating in equal measure. Jane goes from observer to quiet revolutionary in terms of her action in the end and that is typical of a brilliant and unique author such as Fforde – clever, innovative, sometimes dark but ultimately human. As to The System’s downfall, whilst it was by no means straightforward, it felt all too believable in that it was an implosion brought about by The System’s clumsy, bureaucratic structure. The end is left to hang and the lasting impression is one of tired, worn-out individuals who have fought a losing battle against a highly unfair system but in the end managed to bring about its demise. We are left with a world still deeply and acutely divided but with cracks appearing in the previously impenetrable façade. I am not left feeling hopeful or hopeless but simply that it is truth as revealed in ‘Shades of Grey’ and we are prompted to return to that volume in order to identify and appreciate the clever clues that were effectively given to us throughout the narrative.

The end of ‘Red Side Story’ really stayed with me. The way that Eddie and Jane confront the appalling nature of The System, all the social commentary and satire and hypocrisy, is both gut wrenching and bittersweet. That moment when all of Eddie’s growth, physical and emotional, comes to a head and The System’s terrible hypocrisy collapses in on itself, is just such a mess. It’s not neat or tidy. And that last shot of Jane is so quiet and so rebellious. Does anything change? Is it to be? And Jasper Fforde’s wonderful dark humor shines through even in the bleakest of moments and makes you smile through your tears.

It’s not a tidy ending. That’s for sure. This is a mirror to our current societal conflicts and that can be a very scary place. Is our world not as ridiculous as Eddie’s? Jasper Fforde’s dark humor is still evident but it is not enough to make you smile as the ending lingers on with the hope that Jane may have found for herself or perhaps for someone else left behind in this strange world. It is an haunting ending that will have you returning to the beginning of the book searching for answers of where it all went wrong (or right).