David Lodge

That kind of lost-minute twist is generally more typical of the short story than of the novel. Indeed one might say that the short story is essentially "end-oriented", inasmuch os one begins a short story in the expectation of soon reaching its conclusion, whereas one embarks upon a novel with no very precise idea of when one will finish it. We tend to read a short story in a single sitting, drawn along by the magnetic power of its anticipated conclusion; whereas we pick up and put down a novel at irregular intervals, and may be positively sorry to come to the end of it. Novelists of old used to exploit this sentimental bond formed between the reader and the novel during the reading experience.