The turning point in Let the Great World Spin

As we prepare for book group (tonight) I finished re-reading (skimming, actually) Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin," and was impressed once again - a book with so much material, so much story, well crafted, rich with ideas and allusions, a tribute to many strands of modern literary history as well as to the complex network of social classes that intersect, sometimes, in NYC (and more often fail to connect). I once again have a few quibbles, however, and am wondering how the book group will respond: On second reading, I think even more emphatically that the concluding section, which jumps forward from 1974 to apparently 2006, is superfluous and damages the tight structure of the book without adding any vital information. The book should have stayed with its near-unity of time and place. The last section tells us of the adult life of one of the late Jazz's daughters, with some updates on a few of the other characters as well. By the nature of this book, this narrative, it could in a sense go one forever, as long as McCann's imagination and stamina held out - he could tell us about Ciaran (sp?) and his family, and on and on - but no, in my view, it would be have better to stop and let us imagine how the lives have gone forward. McCann softens his tone somewhat toward the end - in fact there's an emotional turning point when Gloria, trudging back to the Bronx on foot, gets mugged and inexplicably asks the cabbie to take her back to Claire's apartment, thus allowing Claire to repent for her crude remark and beginning a lifelong friendship. Let's accept the improbably coincidence of the strand that connects Gloria and Claire not only through their women's group but also through the children of Jazz, but I think the tone of the book has been rather cold and bitter and harsh up to a point and then it becomes warm and accepting and imbued with sisterhood and uplifting moral gestures, as if suddenly McCann is writing for the Oprah Book Club.