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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.6 EAN: 9780316016391 ISBN: 031601639X Label: Back Bay Books Manufacturer: Back Bay Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 416 Publication Date: February 26, 2008 Publisher: Back Bay Books Studio: Back Bay Books Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Amazon Best of the Month Spotlight Title, April 2007: It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle. As a parade of employees depart, bankers boxes filled with their personal effects, those left behind raid their fallen comrades' offices, sifting through the detritus for the errant desk lamp or Aeron chair. Written with confidence in the tricky-to-pull-off first-person plural, the collective fishbowl perspective of the "we" voice nails the dynamics of cubicle culture--the deadlines, the gossip, the elaborate pranks to break the boredom, the joy of discovering free food in the breakroom. Arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, it's a view of how your work becomes a symbiotic part of your life. A dysfunctional family of misfits forced together and fondly remembered as it falls apart. Praised as "the Catch-22 of the business world" and "The Office meets Kafka," I'm happy to report that Joshua Ferris's brilliant debut lives up to every ounce of pre-publication hype and instantly became one of my favorite books of the year. --Brad Thomas Parsons Product Description: No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Confused, strained and syntheticThe title of the book is taken from Don DeLillo's first novel, Americana, which is (not surprisingly) also an art-house novel about an advertising executive and his wacky, post-modern relationships with his co-workers. It's from the first line: "Then we came to the end of another dull and lurid year." Ferris strikes me more as a theorist than an artist. Reading this book felt like an intellectual exercise, as though it was written to be an extended literary device, a form of self ... Read More Rating:  - Office HumanityAt first, I was somewhat hesitant to read a workplace satire. There is a certain pain in watching Office Space that only one in the depths of cubicle hell can really feel in between the humor. But thankfully, I didn't let that prevent me from reading Joshua Ferris's novel once it had been gifted to me. Set during a period of layoffs in an advertising agency, Then We Came to the End shows the humor and the humanity of working in an office with people you'll never really know. My only real complaint ... Read More Rating: - A must for corporate dwellersThis hilarious back-and-forth chronicle is a must read for anyone that has endured, enjoyed or suffered the corporate working environment. Deep characters beyond stereotypes, compelling writing and thought-provoking anecdotes convert this into an office classic. Rating:  - A gem.I'm puzzled by the mixed reviews that readers seem to give this book. But I'm glad that it has apparently been a commercial success nevertheless, because it deserves to be. Perhaps its workplace setting and the blurbs on the book cover, which emphasize how "hilarious" it is, have led too many to expect the absurdism of "The Office". This book is richer than that TV show. While "The Office" has caricatures of workplace personalities, Ferris manages to create relatable workplace characters - impressively ... Read More Rating: - Beat the bad job bluesI read this book while working through my last month at a really awful job. The office politics, gossip, downsizing and hilarious attempts at coping with the daily grind by the employees at this fictional ad agency was a salve to my frayed nerves. At least they had each other and at least I had something to read that literally made me laugh out loud on the bus during my commute. From a literary perspective, I found the language of the book to be really interesting. It isn't often you find ... Read More |
