Then We Came to the End: A Novel
by Joshua Ferris
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joshua FerrisEdition: Paperback
Published: 2008-02-26
ISBN: 031601639X
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Then We Came to the End: A Novel
Book Review: A Literary 'Office'
Summary: 5 Stars
I suppose what's funny is completely subjective based on many of the negative reviews of this novel. Personally I found myself laughing out loud at the absurd, appalling and painfully honest behavior of the employees of a Chicago ad agency facing layoffs amid downsizing. Is it satire? Absolutely. But the book is grounded in a literary shifting of view halfway through the story that changes the tenor of the second half of the novel, and ends up paying in dividends. I also loved that it moved like a locomotive, and the intentional rapid fire and frenetic exchange of dialogue that again only helps immerse the reader into this cubicle fishbowl.
Summary of Then We Came to the End: A Novel
Amazon Significant Seven Spotlight Title, April 2007: It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle. As a parade of employees depart, bankers boxes filled with their personal effects, those left behind raid their fallen comrades' offices, sifting through the detritus for the errant desk lamp or Aeron chair. Written with confidence in the tricky-to-pull-off first-person plural, the collective fishbowl perspective of the "we" voice nails the dynamics of cubicle culture--the deadlines, the gossip, the elaborate pranks to break the boredom, the joy of discovering free food in the breakroom. Arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, it's a view of how your work becomes a symbiotic part of your life. A dysfunctional family of misfits forced together and fondly remembered as it falls apart. Praised as "the Catch-22 of the business world" and "The Office meets Kafka," I'm happy to report that Joshua Ferris's brilliant debut lives up to every ounce of pre-publication hype and instantly became one of my favorite books of the year. --Brad Thomas ParsonsNo one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts.? Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks.
???? With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.
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