Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

It so often happens these days that I’ll be inspired to pull something off of my TBR shelf after it has been languishing there for months (or years) because of something I read about it on a blog. This happened last week with Joshua Ferris’ forthcoming novel, Then We Came to the End.

Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation wrote a post about this book, and even included the first chapter in its entirety, with the permission of Little Brown. Like me, he had picked it up at BEA and had not brought himself to pick it up until recently. In my opinion, the best endorsement of a book is when someone says, “I sat down and decided, ‘I am going to read the first twenty-five pages of this and then, only then, if I don't like it, it's gone.’ A hundred pages later I was still sitting there.”

Because of his post, I started reading Then We Came to the End on our trip to Los Angeles last week. There is not so much a plot as there is a setting where things happen. It is early in our new century at a large advertising agency. The dot-com bust has caused a downturn in business that has precipitated a slow trickle of layoffs. Among this backdrop, office personalities, conflicts, pranks, and coffee breaks ensue. It doesn’t sound like much, but in Ferris’ hands, this foundation becomes a full world bursting with character, warmth, humor, and empathy.

I liked the book from the start, but it wasn’t until a few days later, during a lull in my day when I didn’t even have it in my hands, that I really started to think about it. I began to marvel at the language, the audacity of writing a novel from the first person plural point of view (something I have never experienced before), and the immensely truthful portrayal of the lives of the characters and, by extension, our own lives. Mark Sarvas points out how well Ferris imbues his corporate workplace setting with such humanity, making clear his respect and affection for every one of his gamut of characters.

The more I read, the more I enjoyed and admired the book and Joshua Ferris’ artistry with words. Luckily, I finished it yesterday, New Year’s Day, so I can say this is the first book I’ve read in 2007. And it will most likely be one of the best.

Then We Came to the End will be released in March.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Tags: book reviews workplace humor elegant variation Joshua Ferris