Then We Came to the End: A Novel

This work starts off promisingly enough, feeling like a first person narrative about the "dot bomb" that hit in the late '90s and the kind of things internet start-ups went through back in the day. Then it takes a radical left turn into a more typical narrative about a corporate exec and her struggles with her health, her lovelife, and her career. Eventually, the book returns to its initial themes, but it's a bit "too little, too late."

For a first novel, this is impressive. Much credit to Joshua Ferris for creating very compelling characters, and drawing the reader into their world. I found myself very absorbed in certain storylines and relatively ambivalent about others, but my sneaking suspicion is that this is exactly how Ferris intended it.

Also credit Ferris for taking a unique and challenging approach to his first novel - narrated anonymously, but in the first person plural, the storyteller claims to speak for the group mentality. Throughout the book I kept wondering which of the characters, if any, the narrator would turn out to be.

My final compliment goes to an interlude section in which the narration switches away from the group mentality and focuses on one character's personal hurdles outside the office. This to me was so gripping, so real, I actually got depressed for the character, this while I was on a vacation... at Disneyland. It was an absolutely appropriate break in tone and quite masterfully woven back into the story.

So why only three stars?

First, I feel he made the mistake that I've seen elsewhere in debut novels - he crammed way too much in. That was part of his point, I know, about the crazy cacophony of intersecting lives in an office, but really, he could have saved some of these threads for future novels. As it is, the sheer volume of mishaps, disasters, personal failures and loony behavior within such a small concentration of people eventually grew tiring.

Second, while I praised the innovation of the narrator perspective, it also made the book hard to stick with at times. It also just grew tiring.

Finally, the ending, in spite of some unfortunate ends for a few characters, still seemed almost conveniently happy. I get the point he was trying to make with it (how removal from a stressful situation can change your perspective entirely), but the delivery of it just ended up a little too "feel-good."

So weighing those pros and cons, I'll say I overall enjoyed it, but wouldn't give it a blanket recommendation - I think you have to be a patient reader to stick with it. I will, however, definitely be interested in reading more from this author.

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 readers will never get that far.

The subject matter of the novel are the characters that inhabit the typical, white-collar, cubicle world so many of us in the west are a part of, and it is very insightful. Mr. Ferris has a terrific understanding of the office politics, gamesmanship, frustration and humor of those who work in this world and who interact with each other day after day and year after year. Some of this is very funny and some of this is very sad, and the novel particularly stands out because Mr. Ferris also understands that there are some really strange people in this world. The truth is truly stranger than fiction, and he thankfully never strains our credibility with some of the oddball characters he has concocted here.

The problem is that it takes way too long to get to know them. Because of the impersonal "we" style, there is really no direct contact with a narrator, so one often finds one's eyes glazing over when trying to differentiate between the dozen or so main characters who inhabit the novel and who are presented to us rather quickly. First the talkative Bernie maybe comes into focus, then crazy Tom, then perhaps the boss Joe Pope, but there are a lot more, and by this point about two hundred and fifty pages have gone by. It's very difficult to get a grip; indeed, this style is a perfect example of what our English composition teachers used to describe as "narrative summary."

It is leavened somewhat by the author's regular digressions into realistic and clever dialogue, or when he describes a character's actions, but again, as soon as you think you are starting to sink your teeth into this, here comes this nebulous "we" dragging you back into generalities.

There is promise, though. The author is emotionally mature--he is truly sympathetic to these characters--and as mentioned, he is insightful and clever. The novel rings true. But unfortunately, his experiment with the first-person plural style drags this thing down like a wet dog.

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, from Tom and his unbearably verbose e-mails to Lynn's possible breast cancer (does she or doesn't she have it?) to Amber and Larry's sordid affair, to the tyrannical serial number system used to monitor the precise whereabouts of every single chair, bookcase and printer. It's a brilliant breakdown of why co-workers really ARE like family, in that you can love and hate them with equal passion several times over - just in the course of one day.

Like the movie Office Space - one of my all-time favorites - this might be one of those "you had to be there" kind of things, meaning that to fully appreciate it you may have to have worked in an office environment; i.e., the world of horrific coffee, unproductive meetings, cheap carpet, unreasonable deadlines, ergonomic chairs, romance rumors, post-it notes, and the inevitable waves of layoffs. Since that's been my world for far too long now it was as familiar to me as if I'd written it myself. It's dead-on and in some ways even made me appreciate the little sub-culture created around one's workplace, one you're often not really aware of as its own special little world until you're suddenly booted from it.

I enjoyed it and will probably re-read at some point.

Then We Came to the End was shortlisted for the 2007 National Book Award.

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 me (and perhaps the reason some people are so put off by it) is that so much happens by inference, subtext, and implication. With the single (startling, unexpected, heartbreaking) exception, we never really get inside the perspective of the characters. We see their actions, listen to their words, hear their perspective from them, but their true inner life is the central mystery of the book, much as those we spend our time with are truly unknowable. So those moments when truth bubbles to the surface, when we discover something truly personal about a character, are like shocking twists in a suspense film.

When describing this book, I often say it's like Catch-22 in an office, which isn't really fair, but does get at some central things about the book. First off, the characters' unknowability, then the sheer size of the cast, and the time-jumping nature of the narrative, which goes forward and back and around and through the same central time period. But the thing that both books have at their center is a bruised but extremely loving and generous heart that cloaks itself in jokes and distance because the truth is simply too much to bear. I love this book.