I finished it

 I did complete the last 50 or so pages of "The Running of the Deer" in between last-minute packing and tasks like unplugging as many things as can be, and putting a lamp a timer.

Now I'm wondering if I ever finished it before. Or if I did, the memory of the story slipped from me.

But I liked it. Yes, there are a couple rather unlikeable characters (Marion and her brood; they're all bigots, and Ella needs some sense shaken in to her) but the protagonist Mel (who is 15) is sympathetic, and perhaps was even more sympathetic to me than he would have been a few years ago. And Aunt Ada, who yes, is getting a chance at happiness in the end, she's also very likable. She and Mel and probably Christopher are the most likable characters in the novel.

Without spoiling too much: some big, unpleasant things happen. There's an implied death (though it's a more minor character). There's going to be huge upheaval in Mel's family and yet - he has a chance in life, there will be new things happening for him that will be good things, to make up for all the losses - the loss of innocence, the rift with his former friend Jakie, his frustration at not being able to capture what the chorus of "The Holly and the Ivy" was saying to him in a painting. But at the end he found it, and he looks hopefully towards the new chapter in his life.

And yes: I am not fifteen, nor do I have some kind of unformed artistic talent, but maybe, just maybe there WILL be something good and new and different in the future?  I don't know whether to hope or not, it's been a couple years of most hopes coming to nothing but maybe not all of them will?

I don't know. The book was, I guess you'd call it a "family story" or perhaps even bordering on a "psychological novel." I liked it, and as I said I'm a little surprised it wasn't made into a movie in the era that it was popular, because it very much has the feel of those late 30s/early 40s family dramas. 

I liked it. As I said, it's almost unremembered today, but I liked it.