I'm still blecccch, but couldn't be happier - just got muse Margaret's call about the last fifty-three pages of the book, and she declared them perfect and she was so wonderfully effusive and, as always, very specific about what she liked.
The interesting thing about the long sequence at the end is that it was a goal of mine when I began the book - to do the ending in a certain way - and at first I didn't feel there would be any way to meet the goal. But, by the time I got to page two hundred I realized I might be able to work it out, and I did. The last thirty pages, as most of you know, were a real slog, and frequently very frustrating, but I got where I wanted to go, I guess.