Then We Came to the End

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris is a book about an office. This book is Ferris' first, and while not genius or life changing, it is worth the read. The book is written in first person plural, so statements begin with we. We went to Benny's office (we are ALWAYS going to Benny's office). We made fun of Marcia's hair and love of rock ballads behind her back. While that took some getting used to, so did the time line of the narrative. You aren't sure what events are happening in what order, and you don't necessarily meet the characters in the way you do in most novels. This book assumes that you work in that office and therefore don't need introductions. Almost all of what you know happens at the office and you know very little about what happens outside of the office, with one exception. But that exception, while odd seeming at first, comes back in a way that it all makes sense right at the end. I would recommend this book to readers interested in contemporary writers like Foer, Hornby, or Eggers. It is funny. I would also recommend this to anyone who has worked in a corporate office, or really any office.

"A debut novel from an author whose short fiction has appeared in the Iowa Review, Best New American Voices 2005 , and Prairie Schooner , this work depicts the offices and cubicles of a Chicago advertising agency located on the Magnificent Mile. The employees are quirky, neurotic, and self-involved, but the radical laws of the workplace force them together, and they rely on one another more than they care to admit. Through the anxiety and animosity of layoffs, missing chairs, and office pranks, their collective life story is always at the forefront of the narrative, evoking both great delight and emotional pain as we watch each character come to his or her own end." --Library Journal Review