There is not much to be said for dying. There might be something to be said about it—which is the author's brave endeavor in this log of a death watch. Mainly [Ending] is about what it feels like for a young wife to wait for a young husband (Jay) to die of a terminal sickness. Some of Sandy Kaufman's experiences strike a universal note…. A few of Sandy's reactions are rather special. (pp. 27-8)

The moments that glow in the book devolve from Jay's last desperate acts of will…. But I sometimes wonder whether the air crews I knew in the Ninth Air Force didn't have the right approach to mortality. They never talked about it. (p. 28)

Martin Levin, "Fiction: 'Ending'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1974 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), August 4, 1974, pp. 27-8.