Ending scene with Cyrus and Zee

[noor]

Why do you think the last scene with Cyrus and Zee was so surreal? It broke convention from the rest of the book, and I'd love to hear other readers' interpretations of it. It read like one of the dream scene interludes and I wasn't sure how literally to take what happened between them.

[Helen]

I too was very confused about this. I hope someone can help explain!

[Mariana]

It felt like a dream, but I wondered if he made up the conversation like he did as a child, i.e. Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his dad.

[Amy]

ngl I'm slightly worried it's an unalived-himself experience...

[J]

i keep going back and forth on if this is indeed an unalived-himself imagination or not...

[steph]

I just finished reading this and was really bewildered by the ending- I really think it is written so that it can be interpreted either way (Cyrus ends his life or that he is alive and Zee helps him rebirth himself into a new reality.) Would love to hear others' thoughts on this.

[Lynne Dalton]

I came here specifically to ask about the ending because I can't figure out what was happening either. Zee asked if he was ready, but ready for what? I would love to know what the author was intending.

[Claire]

I believe Cyrus died of Hypothermia free reading his mother’s obituary. He makes many references to being cold and he also never leaves the park after fainting in the museum.

He’s begging to be done over and over again - he’s not begging for hope or peace.

Zee meets him so they can pass into the afterlife together. Time is likely just a construct when entering the afterlife, so they didn’t need to die together to move on together. Zee also shares his thoughts on heaven and hell leading up to the below quotes.

I believe Zee went home and lived a long life because he says:

“A lot of people mistake. Neglect for calm. Cosmic neglect, or otherwise. But nobody’s neglected. You, Cyrus. You see that now, don’t you?”

“I think I’m starting to, yeah” Cyrus answered. Then, “Where is all this coming from?”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about it,” Zee answered, laughing. “A long long time.”

[Eric K]

Claire, that is truly such a beautiful sentiment that I’ve never heard before. It made me tear up. I love this interpretation of the ending and it’s the one I’m going to believe in.

[Alison]

Really interesting interpretation! I thought the snippets of Cyrus's book were evidence that he goes on living after New York.
I am confused though by the dream-like sequence then the chapter opens with a place and time, which always indicates a "real" event. Still, he closes his eyes right before Zee calls. He describes earlier in the book that he would make up these conversations in his head, and then he'd drift off to sleep. I imagine that might have been it.
Conversely, he shows clear signs of illness and high stress. It seems plausible that he does suffer some severe medical event (or even dies, but as I said, I find that difficult to reconcile with his book excerpts).

[Alison]

Allow me immediately retract what I just said - I realised the snippets of the book are from his Word document (bookofmartyrs.docx). Obviously, if it'd ever been published, the reference would not have been a Word document.

[Betsy]

After reading what others said online, the most probable answer for me is he died of sepsis from his injured foot. One woman who experienced sepsis in her leg said that she identified with the ongoing burning in his foot.

[Elaine]

I believe Cyrus and Zee became Martyr's ... in the cold on a bench. Zee had been thinking of this and was ready. Cyrus's goal was to become a martyr.

[Harper]

Alison pointing out the “.docx” format is what confirmed that Cyrus dies for me. How devastating. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time

[Harper]

Further evidence that Cyrus dies is that his parts are never in first-person, but Zee’s section is- almost like Zee is retelling Cyrus’s story or maybe picked up the Book of Martyrs project.

[Natalie]

He keeps feeling cold and then very hot. During a hypothermia event they say the sufferer feels intense heat at the end, and may hallucinate. Therefore, my theory was that he died of cold on the bench, however, now reading the sepsis theory it could also have been that. Mostly, I'm just relieved to see that I'm not alone in my confusion!

[Natalie]

Then there's this summary I've just found:


Acceptance of mortality:
The apocalyptic imagery is not meant to be literal but rather symbolizes Cyrus's acceptance of his own mortality and finding peace in the present moment.

Thoughts?

[Nicole]

I also think he died from the infection of his foot wound. There’s an entire chapter dedicated to the story of how he got this wound. That chapter I think also has a lot of foreshadowing about the wound infection, with Zee saying that they should’ve gone to the hospital and the chapter ending with the image of the blood poking through. There are also mentions of the scar and foot pain in the present timeline.

[Tony]

I said this elsewhere, but I didn't interpret is as death. Remember what Zee said right before he left the hotel room, about how he was experiencing being in love with Cyrus - flowers exploding in his face, etc., every day. I think the ending is Cyrus's version of stepping into that sort of love with Zee.

[Tony]

Natalie wrote: "Then there's this summary I've just found:


Acceptance of mortality:
The apocalyptic imagery is not meant to be literal but rather symbolizes Cyrus's acceptance of his own mortality and finding pe..."

Agreed, and also his finally experiencing love with Zee.

[Reader]

Thank you all for this chat. To me, the penultimate chapter reads like an hallucination or a dream, whether or not he actually died. I assumed Zee’s presence was just part of the hallucination. Factoring the dating of the chapters, the shifting points of view, the shifts in tenses — and what they may indicate about the ending — is beyond me, but I enjoy your speculations. I did, however, think the Coda was a bad choice (ie ending with Sang Linh’s reflection on the best of times with Orkideh. ) This was Cyrus’s tale and, for me, it should have ended with him.

[Caleb]

First off, this is an exceptional modern-era novel that reads like a classic. Possibly it will become one. There is a famous quote that says “the best fiction raises more questions than it answers.” Certainly this is the case here. I think the Coda was a bad choice. I also believe Cyrus and Zee are dead because of the .doc entries and also the fear many of us who write possess, which is we will die before our work is ever finished or published. His unfinished novel itself is dead. There are so many uniquely beautiful metaphors in this novel. One never knows how the final decisions were made about the ending but I wish some editor had talked him out of the Coda or if it’s the editor’s fault, the author had stood firm. It feels like a sisters-on exit way, like one might see in an old farmhouse. But what an outstanding multi-layered work of contemporary fiction, one that reads like a classic, which is extremely rare when reading new fiction.

[Blake]

For me, one possibility is that after Zee leaves Cyrus relapses and pisses his bed. In this possible reading, everything after that point is Cyrus's drunken fantasy about how to make peace with life and death and abandonment and being claimed. But then there is the coda - the 1997 voice of Sang Linh, which means "spiritual," and which inhabits a point of time when there were still other possibilities in Cyrus' and Roya's joint story - where Cyrus's mother (if she was indeed alive) could still find her abandoned son. And that makes me wonder if the "real" story is Roya's and she has invented the main character Cyrus out of her need to bring resolution before her death. There are so many parallels between son's and mother's lives that I feel that one or both of them is inventing the other, in an echo of Roya's exhibit "Why we put mirrors in birdcages."

[Adie]

i think that it is very intentionally meant to be interpret both optimistically and pessimistically, as Cyrus is constantly pulled between a drugged out romanticism or empty, pointless void.

the positive interpretation is that Cyrus found the “drug” of love, something to fill the void as his mother has described. it’s ultimately probably temporary, but many will see that as far more sweet than just alcohol. Cyrus is seemingly perpetually pulled from one extreme, romantic, huge view of the world to the next, and real love (which he seemingly has never felt before), shouldn’t be that different. the book of martyrs dies because he simply finds something else to occupy himself and his life with (Zee).

the other is that he just dies, likely from sepsis in his foot. i think this would probably happen while waiting for Zee in the park, who either doesn’t arrive or arrives too late. at some point Cyrus falls unconscious, begins to dream, and dies as the birds and blossoms fall from the sky and Zee grasps his hand, likely in a hospital, or maybe even on the ground in the park. he realizes in the that Zee is kneeling over him, kissing his tears away. i don’t really understand any interpretation that Zee dies, but rather shepards Cyrus into death.

perhaps a more positive third interpretation is that Cyrus is indeed experiencing sepsis or a severe infection and begins to hallucinate during his conversation with Zee, which starts off normal
enough. perhaps Zee is only partially aware of this at first and is playing along, perhaps he his actions are a total fabrication of Cyrus’s imagination.

i feel most pulled to the interpretation that Cyrus begins to die of sepsis while waiting for Zee in the park, who finds him losing consciousness or fully unconscious. i honestly wanted to believe a happy ending more, but the actual dialogue in the final scene reads as too dreamlike. perhaps Cyrus is half-awake and is conversing with Zee as he dies, and his brain just interprets it as beautiful rather than scary. either way, i think he does come to the conclusion that he loves Zee before dying, but tragically his life before that moment just caught up with him.