The ending, I think, is Ferber trying to do what Wharton did to Newland Archer: it’s just another variation on “society young man can’t escape his unbearable life”. Only Wharton had invested the whole novel in that society and that young man’s ties to it, while Ferber has done the setup at high speed (and somewhat distractedly, as you rightly note), and with a young man who could very believably leave bond-trading behind, either to toil as an architect or an asparagus farmer. But Ferber’s so sold on her ending, she has Dallas basically tell Dirk flat out that there’s no way he can change (after all, the man is almost 30…clearly it’s too late for him), just to make sure the reader doesn’t get confused.

But I liked the beginning of this book (and much of the middle) enough that it bothers me it ended this way. I have to say I liked the book, and would recommend it to others. I just wish the finale had worked better. This is one of those cases where a happy ending would have been much more believable….Selina marrying Roelf would have been both a little edgy (given their disparate ages) and entirely in character for them both. Dirk’s redemption and marrying Dallas would have been a bit more “Chicken Soup for the Soul” but it would have been more organic to the book than the ending we got.

Well, on from here to Arrowsmith–I’ve always wanted to read Sinclair Lewis. We’ll see if he lives up to the hype.