Then We Came to the End

Despite widespread critical acclaim, this book has gotten mixed reviews from customers.I understand it, and people who hated it aren't wrong. I'd like to address these criticisms later, so please stick with me.The positive reviews I've read about "Then We Came To The End" are mostly spot-on -- but without giving it away, they don't consistently convey WHY this amusing, touching and ultimately tender book soars - at least for me.It's the ending.The last 20 pages of Joshua Ferris's book twisted and turned me in every direction. But it's THE VERY LAST LINE -- (DON'T CHEAT) -- that catapulted me into the universe with the most glorious twist of all.Many writers searching for something to leave behind that feels ironic or profound -- I'm sorry -- in my view, they just don't know how to end their books. I say this as a consumer who's a voracious reader. Their last pages feel quietly pretentious -- or a little too contemplative or optimistic. Even great literature - especially prize-winning literature - can be so tortuous in construction or over-reaching in their efforts to convey some grand message -- that they feel like work, with sentences so mind-numbing that you need a dictionary and a level of concentration akin to taking a bar exam."Then We Came To The End" may not be considered great literature, but it's euphoric. It's wonderful. It underscores that nebulous "thing" that makes the office dull and robotic -- but also vital and vibrant, essential to our lives. The book makes me question, admire and dismiss -- all at once -- why I put up with so much " s***," why I find great satisfaction in my work on one day and why I hate everything the next. The masochistic, sadistic and triumphal feelings I have about work -- and about the "back stories" of my colleagues around me -- there's something weirdly magnetic about all of it -- even as I complain, complain, complain.In my view, the simplicity (or difficulty) associated with "Then We Came To The End" really depends on whether the material hits you in a way that's familiar and funny, not dull or indulgent. It can do both. And as others have stated, the author's use of the first person plural "we" -- in every chapter but one -- can't be overstated. It's miraculous when it works -- because it's so difficult to pull off without fumbling or confusing the reader. When it does work (as it did for me) - when it's infused with content so beguiling and familiar -- you're no longer aware of the author's writing style, which should be the dream achievement of all great writers. Reading becomes effortless as the clock melts away.Joshua Ferris recently said in an interview -- and at a recent book signing -- that the thing intriguing about every office is this: Even if you don't know everyone very well or at all, EVERYONE has an OPINION about YOU and everyone else.This may feel like a universal nugget of common sense, but you're not really aware of it until it unfurls between the lines and chapters of this book. The beginning of most chapters include sub-chapter "headlines" which tease you about what's to come. Soon, boredom and irreverence are transformed into amusing and almost affectionate feelings -- about everything that happens.The biggest criticism about "Then We Came to the End" is the skeletal development of its characters. Well, when I got to the last line on the last page, it became more clear to me why this MUST be the case. Every character -- in every chapter but one -- is presented as a "type."But this feels intentional. The collective "we" is forced to guess what each character is thinking. And like most offices, "we" can only know as much as what we SEE or HEAR. The most trivial information becomes precious and titanic. And the results can be tragic AND darkly funny. The collective "we" can't read minds, so we draw our own conclusions to ridiculous lengths. In the end, we have sketches. And this feels right. How many of our co-workers become life-long friends with whom we trust to share our most intimate secrets? One or two if we're lucky. It takes work - AT WORK - to get beneath the surface of our colleagues. Almost everyone comes off thinly drawn because the collective "we" is forever deprived a complete picture of WHAT and HOW each person thinks.For example, I know people in my office, but some remain a mystery. When I get together with colleagues, we trade stories about everyone. When one guy leaves the room, we might talk about him. Or not. Most of our stories are sprinkled with guesses and presumptions. Who's deviant? Who's got the gun collection? Who's the lush? Who's got the wild double life? "Someone" might know, but "we" as a group don't.I would say that "Then We Came to the End" is an observational and episodic novel -- subject to wide interpretation -- because of a literary device that seldom works in most novels. If you're looking for "fleshed out" characters and profound themes, you won't find them here. This book isn't for you and this is not a criticism. Your complaints are justified. I believe expectations matter. A novel so widely acclaimed that disappoints will cause anyone to say out loud, "well, this was all hype" - or - "man oh man, those critics are so out of touch with me."I still believe Ferris has captured the delicate balance between satire and brutal truth, the latter in ways which sound superficial and cliché, but woven in his book as they do, rang true for me.There's something strange about that colleague you regard with derision or fear on one level, but with admiration and respect the next. And what about work itself? Why is our identity and self-image defined by it? Why does it have to matter more than just a way to put bread on the table? These questions went through my head as I turned each page.So yeah, I know it's still early. But in my view, "Then We Came To The End" is the most remarkable debut of 2007. While it's difficult to imagine Joshua Ferris topping this, I've no doubt he has a tremendous future and a unique voice that will always feel relevant.

Ah, office life. So rife for parody. So fertile with corporate absurdity. Where mankind's unique lunacies are simultaneously coddled and dismissed. The things that make us uncomfortable and disgruntled are handled with pig-skin gloves and ice tongs, and the things that make us excited and content are considered extraneous to the bottom line. Where back sides are so well-covered that they're almost impossible to kiss. Is there any better fodder for  literature , television , or  movies ?Joshua Ferris' debut novel comes along at a time when the corporate zeitgeist is experiencing a resurgance in parody and satire, and some would say he joins the ranks of those who get it right, who manage to sock the nail squarely on the head. I won't go that far.I give the guy props for aiming high. His book, written in the first-person plural, is told from the view of over half a dozen different characters. The effect is more than a little dizzying, although it does give the book the sense of collective panic and confusion that seems to pervade the cloth-lined cubicles of most white-collar rat mazes. His quirky characters -- Tom Mota (unhinged idealist), Chris Yop (office supply thief), Carl Garbedian (emasculated pill popper) -- they all sing and dance like very real people, and their interactions are well-played and telling, even if they aren't also very interesting.What would've made them interesting would've been some sort of coherent story line, a plot hub around which they all could've spun. Instead, the most consistent thread to the tale is the overarching dread each of them has about being fired, the final notice when their lives' greatest suspicions are confirmed: you are not necessary or important. The only real antagonist in this book is the Almighty Pink Slip, it's an idea, and (even more so) it's the uncertainty and chaos that hides behind the idea. As far as Ferris' drones are concerned, Life After Layoffs is just as sticky a wicket as Life After Death.It's not a bad premise, and Ferris' decision to deliver it from the perspective of the collective lends the story a lot more weight than it might otherwise have. After all, equating the loss of a job with the loss of a life is the bailiwick of all good office parody; have we become so disconnected from our souls that our identity is tied up in pay grades and job labels? (Ever heard this exchange before? "After all, I'm Assistant Regional Manager." "No, you're Assistant TO the Regional Manager.")Unfortunately, Ferris' book, in spite of its clever rambling, in spite of how deftly the protagonists pass of the narration without missing a stride, in spite of how nimbly office politics are parlayed into things like emails, office chairs, and cubicle knick-knacks -- in spite of all of this, it doesn't really pack much punch until the last few pages, when the real humanity of the characters is finally allowed to stand out. The final lines of the novel are really just very, very good stuff, but it comes at the tail end of a lot of ham-fisted meandering, and it makes you wonder just how good the book could've been had Ferris not tried so hard to be funny, and had instead tried harder to be real.He could've taken a lesson from Max Barry's "Company," another book about office politics, but one that goes more whole-hog with its satire. The slim tome starts with the theft of a donut and swiftly crumbles in on itself in a deliciously over-done send-up of every element of office life, from the dark overlords at Human Resources, to the pale, squinting I.T. guys. The novel follows the trail of Stephen Jones, the new guy at a corporate behemoth called Zephyr Holdings. Jones barely has enough time to warm the seat of his chair before consolidations and lay-offs rock the business. Inter-office politics lock down all progress, salespeople are ordered to REDUCE productivity, the buttons in the elevator are all backwards, and no one -- absolutely no one -- can even tell Jones just what the company does, anyway. Also, there's still a donut thief on the loose.Although Barry's book is a bit more juvenile than Ferris', that also means it's having a lot more fun. Jones goes on a quest to untangle the quagmire of memos and inter-departmental backstabbing that seems to be the lifeblood of Zephyr, and along the way he uncovers a dark, fundamental truth behind the way all businesses are run: employees are unnecessary. Ferris spends over half of his novel asking the old "Am I really significant?" question, while Barry jumps straight into explaining the answer."Company" gets a little kooky near the end, and in that way, it's sort of the anti-thesis of "Then We Came to the End." The body of one wants the conclusion of the other. But, even if "Company" takes to fantastical lengths the Swiftean logic of big business, it still comes out ahead in terms of sheer entertainment and thought-cud. Barry doesn't have the literary grace of Ferris, but he does manage to put together a more revealing, a more pertinent, and a funnier story.I guess it boils down to what kind of boss you are: do you like clever busy work, or do you want results at all costs? Ferris gives you one, and Barry gives you the other. Either way, it beats actually working.

this was very hard work and seemed interminable at times but, curiously, I did quite enjoy it in some ways and certainly am pleased that I persevered and finished it. This is not because there is any great fanfare at the end but, in its own quiet way, it does tie up a lot of loose ends and there is , in parts, a slight degree of optimism to be found if you look hard enough.Office life is brilliantly depicted in all its awful glory. having been forced to finish working way before I was ready without warning, i really missedthe working environment but need this book to remind me so vividly about how tedious and petty it can be. having also done some time in marketing, it had an added resonance and highlighted the vacuous nature of much of the endevour wonderfully.he can write well but a lot of this is very flat and tedious but suppose this is intentional - does not make it easy to read though.It is not often that i find it so hard to judge the real merit of a book but suspect that partly this was because it was out of my comfort zone but also because it took a very long time to assimilate the number of characters and differentiate them and although life-changing events are happening all the time, they are downplayed by the deadpan deliverycertanly worth a read

The thing about writing a book in the first-person plural is that it’s well-nigh impossible to get everything happening in ‘immediate scene.’ Which is why most of the narrative in Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End, relies on its fulsome cast of characters to relate it in the third person singular. The cast - or chorus as you might call them (except strictly speaking they’re not a chorus because they're all named) - are as follows; Amber, Andy, Benny, Brizz, Carl, Chris, Dan, Don, Doug, Ernie, Genevieve, Hank, Janine, Jim, Joe, Karen, Larry, Lynn, Marcia, Mike, Paulette, Reiser, Roland, Sandy, and Tom; those are the staff at the advertising agency. There’re also Carter, Heidi, Michael, and Seth, who put in an appearance at the end when most of the characters enjoy a reunion in a wine bar ‘five years later’. There are also ‘The Building Guy’, Becky the baby, Brizz’s brother Frank (aka Bizarro Brizz) Martin, Marylin, and the mysterious Brian Bayer. I say ‘most’ of the characters assemble for a reunion – that is all except one, plus the three who have died, and to find out who these are and how and why, you will have to come right to the end. There are more characters than in Romeo & Juliet – which is quite possibly why the families in that play get a mention. There are more characters than in a Wagner opera, and in some ways the narrative is is both Shakespeare and Wagner. I almost forgot Ralph - that’s Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and transcendentalist. He’s not one of the cast, but his philosophy - that you don’t need to search for the truth because it will reveal itself intuitively through nature - is ever present. ‘Funny,’ ‘hilarious’, ‘entertaining,’ the epithets from the usual suspects are misleading and they should examine their motives for saying so. The beauty of being an amateur reviewer on Amazon is that one has no axe to grind.. I can almost guarantee you will laugh, but the novel is sad, painful, wistful. There is cancer, the abduction and murder of a child, the celebration of dullness and uniformity, physical and mental breakdowns, eccentricity and despair. There are multiple lay-offs (described as 'being made to walk Spanish down the hall'). There are multiple swivel chairs with concealed serial numbers, multiple floors with highly static carpets, and 'a circuitous blueprint of cubicle clusters'. It’s Wagnerian, it’s Shakespearian, and it’s experienced by ‘you and me.’

There seem to be a lot of reviewers here who did not appreciate this book. It would not do for us all to like the same things, but I for one really enjoyed it.I worked in an office for quite a few years, and found that this story captured the atmosphere of office life quite brilliantly. It is funny in places, not always laugh out loud but often in a subtle manner, and it is also quite poignant and sad. It is a brilliant piece on how lots of different personalites cope when lumped in to working together. I can recognise some of the characters (maybe not so extreme) from my own former workplace!Maybe you have to have worked in an office environment to fully "get" this story, but for me it really hit the spot, and I have returned to read it again on more than one occasion. In fact I miss working in an office and reading this makes me nostalgic! (Yes, there are worse jobs out there, be grateful for your ergonomic chair, desk and "buck cases" - read it and you'll understand the reference!)

I loved the writing. It read like true, observational modern American literature. This is definitely a talented writer. It took me a long while to get into the book and I just had to keep plugging away. I found it hard to have any empathy with the characters except Lynn Mason and Joe Pope. I groaned at the constant immaturity of the characters but it had an authenticity to it ( could be a subconscious recognition of characters from all of the US driven TV series I have watched over the years) that kept me going. I think I felt the lack of a storyline and I think my tenacity in continuing to read it was due to the fact that that was probably the point. A story came clear about three quarters of the way through and I met it head on with huge relief. But for me this is an observation of a hugely changing world, unwanted, resisted, uncomfortable but necessary. I commend the author albeit I think Mad Men came first.

I thought the first person plural a little gimmicky when I opened the book, but I think it's truly justified by the subject matter - corporate life is a bit like being a worker bee and working on behalf of the corporation, dancing to some other tune than your own. (And the book perfectly captures the idiocy and boredom of that too, without itself being boring.)I thought it was clever and different, but not only that - I thought it had plenty of heart and enough story for me too. Also, it's so hard to write about corporate life - I've seen many try and fail but Ferris pulls it off in my view. Perhaps you need to have worked in a corporation for it to chime as much as it did with me.But I don't want to big it up so much that you don't like it.Oh, and though there's black comedy I wouldn't choose it as a comic read - the blurb is a bit misleading.