Monday, February 18, 2008

"then we came to the end" by joshua ferris

this novel centers on an ad agency in chicago that is quickly going down the drain. as work dries up and layoffs become more and more frequent, the remaining employees keep up a facade of busyness, gossip and pull pranks. the character's are quirky, yet believable. they steal each other's chairs, have affairs, black out their windows with construction paper and wear multiple shirts.

i have never encountered a novel quite like this. it is written in the first person plural so the people in the office become a unit, referred to as we. "we went to this meeting", "we had a 40 minute coffee break", "we worried about so-and-so". you are never sure which one of the characters is actually the narrator, and while frustrating intially, it's an interesting device that keeps any one character from becoming the single protagonist or antagonist. that said, the first person plural also muddles the narrative slightly. character's often relay past conversations to other characters and this creates confusion.

this book was just alright.


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