Then we came to the end by Joshua Ferris

I guess this was a very really good book, because in the end I found that I really cared for the characters. I had an emotional reaction to their misfortunes at the end of the book.

I picked up this book when the New York Times put it in its top ten book of 2007 (fiction). I can’t remember exactly when about the article made me want to read it. I paid for price at Barnes and Nobles, which is something I rarely do.

The book is basically about life in an office. This time it is a Chicago ad agency, but it could be any office in the U.S. In the story, everyone is slowly being laid off, as it is set in the dot-com bust of a few years ago, but it rings true today. It was unnerving reading a story about people getting laid while lots of people in my own office have been dropping or “walking the Spanish” as they put in the book.

The book, which is Then we came to an end is a perfect book about the culture of an office. Really, I think every college or high school should be forced to read this book, so they can ask themselves if this (“the office”) really for me, or they can prepare themselves, because working in an office is like, especially when you are young, being in first grade again. You have to do so much more than kindergarten, which is basically college and especially grad school. You have recess, try to talk to your neighbor and look for a place to take a nap. This book captures everything about that perfectly. Ferris, the author, does it with much whit and insanity. He gets the archetypes right. The bitch, the boss, the scape goat, etc., and all their disorders are presented like the Canterbury tales or more aptly the Decameron.

I hope I didn’t forget to mention that it is so funny. There are definitely some laugh out loud moments. lol.

While I was reading this book, I used it as a guide of office pranks. I switch people’s chair to see if they would notice. I went to different floors to determine who had to the best coffee. It was the fifth floor on my building. These and other great ideas I lifted right the pages much to my co-workers’ bewilderment.

There is the TV series “The Office” both in UK and US versions. That’s really bizarre, and not too realistic because it is so extreme. It’s funny though. This book has too be drawn from real experience because some of the stuff written about has that “it must be true feeling,” because you can’t make that stuff up, and there are time where you think that this part of book is out of the author’s imagination. At other time you figure he was just a fly on the wall.

The Chicago part seems dead on. I hear the same voices and styles when people my Chicago office tell stories. It has the same feel.

This is Joshua Ferris’ first book, so you can’t anything else by him. He lives in Brooklyn now, maybe his next one will be more ghetto. Totally great book, read it.