I think that McEwan has written a very effective conclusion to the novel, despite what many critics have said about it being too "tidy". These critics have suggested that in particular McEwan's skeleton of nine chapters is too schematic. However, I think that this shows a good way to represent not only the nine month period over which Julie and Stephen's new child is growing, but also the time during which Stephen has developed and …showed first 75 words of 1378 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1378 total…I think that McEwan has written a very good chapter to finish the novel. Although some critics accuse it of being overly neat, we as an audience feel that it is worth it because the characters -- in particular, Stephen -- have been through so much. They deserve a happy ending. McEwan has not designed the book to be realistic, but to tell us about human nature, and I think he has done this wonderfully.