Did you read the sequel as well? It certainly has more of ending, but I would say its any better. I certainly enjoyed it more, but that is more because it became a goofy melodramatic mess rather than it being actually good. I will never get over the fact that the main character goes to Pakistan in order to escape America's homosexual stigma.
I actually only found out there was a sequel a couple days ago. I was going to post about it when the week had finished, but I would agree it's certainly more..."enjoyable", in its own ridiculous, overdramatic, and contrived plot. Which is funny, because the part you pointed out as being ridiculous actually seemed the least terrible to me because if I remember from my not very close reading, he went to Pakistan to not escape America's stigma, but because he had this notion that if he went there that he would end up dead without committing suicide. Of course it was over the top, but it's not really worse than his partner not dying of AIDs but instead getting shot twice by his wife for having a male partner and bleeding all over the protagonist (and who amazingly, despite theim being
partners, still doesn't contract HIV) because, I don't know, not like the AIDs would have killed him anyway.
I liked the original because it was a fairly muted, realistic (albeit slightly melodramatic) view of a failed relationship. There's a sense throughout that their relationship couldn't have worked out anyway, not only due to America's stigma against homosexual relationships at the time, but also because of the culture that stigma had created. So it's unsurprising that one person looking for love and long term commitment would be incapitible with another who's already been ingrained with this idea that a same sex relationship can't last, which is further shown in their final exchange at the airport. I think, in retrospect, it gave a great sense of how the dating scene differed from a heterosexual one, where these kinds of true loves you see in traditional romances normally wouldn't have even had the chance to take shape properly.
And then the sequel happened, and I'm not sure I believe it anymore.
