Then We Came to the End: A Novel
by Joshua Ferris
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Book Reviews of Then We Came to the End: A Novel
Book Review: not quite Dilbert, but close
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't think you have to have worked in a cube farm to enjoy this book, but it probably helps. On the other hand, if you've ever been the victim of a layoff, it may hit a little too close to home. Narrated in first person plural, an omniscient "we," this tragicomedy is not so much about downsizing as it about the quirks of the various members of a corporate office. The book is chock-full of stereotypes, including the diminutive female boss, Lynn, with a fabulous shoe collection, and her lieutenant, Joe, who fits in with neither management nor staff. The author succeeds in making the point that sometimes managers tend to view their staff as a collective entity rather than as individuals. By the same token, some employees fail to see their supervisors as having human characteristics. In fact, the heart of the book is the story of Lynn's struggle with her fear of breast cancer surgery. Lynn epitomizes how people allow their jobs to define who they are and how their jobs affect their standing within their various relationships--with their friends, their families, and their coworkers. Work can be stressful, but the routine of our jobs can be comforting also. One copywriter shows up for a meeting 2 hours after he's been let go, just because it's been on his calendar for months. There are lots of quotable quotes in this book, but one of my favorites is on page 53: "We liked wasting time, but almost nothing was more annoying than having our wasted time wasted on something not worth wasting it on." Dilbert, take note.
Book Review: Raises serious questions about the acclaim machine
Summary: 3 Stars
Perhaps there is so much dreck in contemporary fiction that a good-but-not-great book like this -- readable and mildly amusing -- stands out from the pile. Or maybe the many "disappointed" reviewers here are just wrong. But I believe "Then We Came to the End" and its over-the-top reviews and awards raise serious questions about how novels are marketed and sold in our age. Here's how it works. A promising new novel comes out. By a first novelist, no less! It gets a few good reviews. Readers pass it on. It gets a few more good reviews. And more word of mouth. Then comes the tipping point when those readers who will read anything recommended to them, who refuse to do the hard work of reading critically, pile onto the bandwagon and praise the novel as "the next Catch-22" or "the next 'Catcher in the Rye'." You can't blame the novelist who, in this case, shows great potential (read his wonderful short stories in the New Yorker.) The fault, as Shakespeare and Edward R. Murrow would remind us, lies not in our stars but in ourselves. Good novels need to be called good novels -- period. Best to let it go at that, lest good novels, rather like a certain president we're all somewhat disappointed in, be held so high that disappointment (and distrust of future acclaim) is inevitable. As for "Then We Came to the End" being a finalist for the National Book Award and making the NY Times Top 10 List, well, that acclaim is just mystifying. Those folks should know better. This is a good novel. Period.Book Review: Less CATCH 22, more SOMETHING HAPPENED, but all wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a lot of comparisons to Catch-22 in the reviews for Then We Came to the End, and they're understandable, given the book's sprawling cast and the meandering, episodic, time-jumping narrative. And yet, for all the quiet humor, the Heller book I found myself remembering again and again was Something Happened, Heller's quietly desperate and melancholy book about office life in the middle class. Told in a first-person plural style that emphasizes the way we interact with our offices, Then We Came to the End tells the story of a Chicago ad agency slowly falling apart in the wake of the burst dot-com bubble. Is it funny? Undoubtedly - from people conversing only in Godfather quotes to workers who keep working long after they've been laid off, Ferris finds that mundane, everyday humor that pervades the work lives of us all. But in the end, it's not the humor that makes Ferris's book so successful; it's the undercurrent of desperation, loneliness, and isolation that truly makes the book soar, taking what could have been just another Dilbert or The Office and making it into a wonderful study of modern life. With characters facing death, mid-life crises, and all sorts of office melodrama, Ferris somehow manages to walk the thin line between comedy and tragedy, and the result is a minor miracle - a wonderful book whose characters and world are so rich and vibrant that the ending of the book made me sad to leave it all behind, all the way to the perfect last line.Book Review: shaky start, brilliant middle, strong end
Summary: 3 Stars
A book about office life. Just what the world needs, right?
ATWCTTE starts off charmingly enough, introducing us to the cast of characters and detailing the office politics and their wacky hi-jinks and eccentricities. Harmless enough, but it goes on and on and on. I struggled making any progress through the book, as hearing these quirky anecdotes just became boring. Also, the characters were not defined in a manner where I could fully remember who was who. So, yeah, the first 1/3 of the book is a slog.
But in the middle of the book there is an abject switch in tone and style. Detailing one of the characters diagnosis and planned treatment for cancer, the book becomes, for a while, nothing short of a masterpiece. It's really, really, good.
After the middle section, the book shifts back to the office dynamic. It's similar to the first third of the book, but after having been through the middle section, everything seems much darker. At least it did to me. I don't know if that was the intended effect. In any case, having been through the filter of middle of the book, the end third is much more bearable than the first third, despite their similarities.
After finishing the first third of the book, I would have never guessed that I would end up recommending it, but I am. Shaky start,but ultimately a strong debut novel. Ferris is definitely someone to keep an eye on.
Book Review: I missed all the hype, so I was pleasantly surprised
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me just say that my expectations going in were low. When this was chosen as the next selection by one of my two book clubs, I was a bit dismayed. Although I adore Office Space (the movie) and The Office (the TV show), the subject matter of this book would not typically catch my interest in a novel. Once I started the book, however, I could not put it down and read it over a weekend. As it happened, much of the weekend was spent in airports and on planes. I was actually looking forward to getting to the airport early so that I could read. Clever and hilarious! What a fantastic first effort by Joshua Ferris. I was actually causing people to stare at me on the plane, I was laughing so hard. Ferris writes about life in an ad agency on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago .... an ad agency going through layoffs where workers have close to no work to do and are struggling to justify their existence. If you have ever worked in an office and, in particular, if you have ever gone through layoffs or restructuring, you will "get" this book and the anxiety, gossip, backstabbing and hilarity that ensues. You will recognize people that you have worked with and likely identify yourself in others. This book is funny, sad and thought provoking all at the same time. I was more than pleasantly surprised and will definitely follow this author to read what he comes out with next. But, please tell me, what happened to Joe Pope?!?