| |  | Books : Then We Came to the End: A Novel |  | | | | | | | | | |
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Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780316016391
ISBN: 031601639X
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Sales Rank: 2741
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
No 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.
Amazon.com Review:
Amazon Best of the Month 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 Parsons
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Becomes a Chore
The most unusual thing about this novel is its style.It is written in what would be described as the first-person plural, which means that the narrative is presented to us by a mysterious, "we:""We walked over to Bernie's office," or, "We heard there were donuts in the break room," or, "We found ourselves getting tired of Karen's antics," etc.The last sentence of the novel reveals that there is a somewhat poignant reason for this, but its effect is so disconcerting that it is likely that many ... Read More
Rating:  - True, funny and touching
The unnamed narrator of this book kept me laughing and nodding my head for the whole ride as he took me through the final tumultuous weeks suffered by the anxiety-ridden employees of a Chicago advertising firm. Business is down and layoffs are on, and all of them are just clinging to the life-raft, praying they won't be next and agonizing over what they'll do if they are. For the most part it's a hysterically funny and usually unflattering inspection into each character, mixed in with more serious moments, ... Read More
Rating:  - I Laughed, I Cried - Three Thoughts
Very rarely does a book inspire me to laugh out loud, much less gasp or start tearing up. This book did all of that (which led to some embarrassing moments on the train) and more. I read it several months ago and still think about it at least once a day - although I do work in an office in Chicago that is facing layoffs, so the parallels are undeniable. But I don't want to sell Ferris short - the book would be brilliant even if it didn't resonate with my real life.
The book's real triumph for ... Read More
Rating: - Adperson's anomie
The clever and sophisticated people in this novel begin by acting in petty and childlike ways. They are a group of workers in an advertising agency in Chicago.. Augusten Burroughs's "Sellevision" and Scott Adam's Dilbert strip come to mind. The book is often mordantly funny, although it includes the murder of a child, a death from cancer, a death in military action, and bouts of depression and mental illness. These actions are effectively counterpointed with concerns about such matters as ownership of a chair ... Read More
Rating: - Funny, fantastic, tragic book (and gorgeous dust jacket design!)
This is one of the best books I've read in years: really unique, funny, and sad. I was drawn to it initially because of the brilliant cover design - fantastic work by designer Jamie Keenan by the way, and too bad the paperback editions don't reuse the same design - and lucked out judging this great book by its cover.
Then We Came to the End: A Novel | | | |
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