Then We Came to the End

Ferris explores the workplace in the context of an economic downturn. Petty office politics, ingenious ways to waste time, quirky characters, and incestuous relationships are the order of the day. To great effect, Ferris tells this story in the rarely-used first-person plural voice. Parts of this book are funny and other parts are touching, and I was thoroughly entertained for about 100 pages. Eventually, the first-person plural becomes somewhat tedious, the workplace setting runs out of interest, and I was ready for the book to end.

Then We Came to the End is regularly entertaining, but largely overrated. The book contains some apt and insightful descriptions of office life (both the ennui and sense of community it offers), but is also in bad need of some editing. And while there are certainly moments of effective humor, the author misses the emotional heart he is trying to capture at the core of his story. The characters are familiar archetypes to anyone who has spent time in a modern office setting, but Ferris exaggerates all of them into caricature and as a result, he loses the very sense of reality that is so enticing in his opening pages.

Like too many first-time novelists, Ferris is better at sermonizing than dramatizing: his narrator (the book is written in the first-person plural, emphasizing the group-think of the office community) can often rhapsodize effectively about life in the cube farm, but the incidents the author puts in play to illustrate it are not as compelling. That problem is compounded by the novel's relative lack of plot: it's a very episodic narrative whose total feels less than the sum of its parts. When, toward the end, Ferris teases us with some preposterous workplace violence, it feels like the novelist is more desperate than the character holding the gun.

Still, there are pleasures to be had here, and Ferris has talent that will hopefully grow in future novels. If you want a light, surface-level read with a few laughs and some outrageous characters, this is pleasing enough. But if you're looking for a little more relevance and an emotionally compelling narrative with characters you come to care about, you may be ultimately disappointed, as I was.

This book came to my attention when I was checking up on the book I was reading at the time. That book was "After the Workshop" by John McNally. It was an enjoyable read. It was witty and well paced. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for "Then We Came to the End." For me it will be called, "I Never Came to the End." I have picked this book up on six separate occasions and forced myself to read as many pages as I could. It's embarrassing that I've not made it through the first chapter, especially since I rarely leave a book unfinished. It's long-winded paragraph after paragraph of someone telling me rather than showing me. It's like reading the blog of the most boring person you know. I'm glad that there are people who enjoy it and wish Mr. Ferris all the best. Read the first few pages yourself and let your reaction be your guide.

With regards to this book, it is difficult for me to distinguish between creative writing devices that should be praised and sluggish gimmicks that made this book a chore to read. The premise of the book had so much potential but I failed to become at all engaged in the story for the first 100 pages. The first person plural struck me as an unnecessary gimmick that seemed more to blur the myriad of characters into a single entity with very little differentiation and was a distraction. The endless slew of office stories, most a page or less, used to define the characters bogged the whole process down such that it required a hundred pages to accomplish what could have been done in a quarter of that.

I will admit that the book grabbed me around a hundred pages in and that the last hundred pages are great. It does just keep getting better and better; Ferris is clearly a gifted writer/story teller. But be warned, prepare yourself for a very long, difficult to read opening quarter of the book (at least in my opinion) So I will average 5 stars (which represent the last quarter of the book) and 1 star (the opening quarter) and round down because the opening portion of a book should hook the reader in, rather than present him with a hurdle to overcome and this book did not hook me in at all.

I found this to be quite familiar and...entertaining, shall I say? There is tons of weirdness throughout this book, but the characters seemed so intricately defined that I thought one of my colleagues had written the story. While I've not experienced much of what is written, it is a well-written story about the office dynamic.

I wanted to enjoy this book; having worked for a company that looked as if it was going under, I hoped that Ferris's novel would be all it was hyped up to be.

As it turned out, I was disappointed. Mostly, I found the lack of point of view to be rather distracting and annoying. The characters, when Ferris gives a glimpse into their inner selves, were actually rather engaging, but it was difficult to cut through the group mentality that Ferris adopts.

The one chapter told from the perspective of the sick manager was outstanding - had the whole book been written as well, I would have given it an enthusiastic five stars.

Ferris writes the funny stuff very well, and he deftly handles a large cast of characters. I hope that in his future novels, he lives up to the promise he shows here.

At 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 is with the number of characters, I ended up mixing some together, which is probably sadly somewhat true to life. Humorous, and also surprisingly somber at times, TWCTHE brings the humanity back to the workplace.

While it's funny, and different (imagine 20 different people working for 20 years, and the collected stories, now compressed into a few key players and a lot of action over a few months) I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it whilst still employed by a cubicle farm...
I enjoyed it, and the ending was strange, and made me re-think a few comments that I made to my husband when I first started it... But I'll be selling this book on the store, and never picking it up again, and only rarely thinking about it.

thought hard to follow at times, (I was never a fan of reading third person omniscient) ferris's words interrupt your mind suddenly with an epiphany of truth so cleanly observed and described in a way that any agency professional could relate. the characters are memorable and universal (every office has a Tom, a Benny, a Joe Pope) and his summation of work in a business on the sharp decline was uncanny.

"it was a shrill, carping, frienzied time; and as poisonous an atmosphere as we had ever known... and we wanted nothing more than to stay in it forever"

After hearing how funny this book was, seeing how many awards it had won, I tried to read it several times. Recently I picked it back up (after putting it down months ago) but quickly just gave up again - permanently this time. The long rambling pointless prose style just got to me. Couldn't stand it. It's like listening to that long-winded person everyone has in their office tell what should be a brief story about what they did last night - they drone on and on, sticking in details that don't matter, subreferencing to an extent that would drive Dennis Miller crazy, and won't just get to the point, until you forgot why you even cared and you wish they would just stop so you could get back to work. Yes, there are some very pointed and funny observations in the book, but they are buried within long passages that go nowhere and serve no purpose. I wanted to like this book, can relate to the material (recently lost my job after watching other waves of layoffs) but in the end just couldn't get through it.

At first I found the book funny and realistic. The characters and life at an advertising agency were very relatable.
However, it was a really long book that never really went anywhere. I almost didn't finish it because I got bored. I was surprised since it got so much praise.

I pushed through and made it to the end. When I got there, the tone of the book totally changed from realistic to fantasy or a dark comic. I felt mislead not amazed. It was like the author was grasping for an epic ending and accomplished it in the most elementary kind of way. It was completely out of left field, overdramatic and absurd.

I was tired of reading it, and it was clear that the author was tired of writing it. Sad to say I should have stopped reading sooner.

The 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-satisfying academic experimentation, not a story.

I am sure there are people who enjoy reading books that are constructed as intellectual exercises, but I don't. In my experience, these are the same people who sneer at the very idea of deigning to enjoy a good story. I prefer novels that are about feeling and experience. This one isn't.

Ferris' use of a plural first-person narrative voice in this book about the daily struggles of mid-level advertising executives isn't the royal we. Instead, it's the degrading corporate we that took over America in the 1990s in an attempt to get ever more work from the individual by convincing him he was part of something larger than himself (like a team or even a crusade). If that's all there was, however, this book would simply be sad -- a jumbled collection of post-9/11 Dilbert-esque anecdotes. Instead, it's a hilarious (and sometimes introspective) rant against the powers that be, along with the belated discovery that most Americans are too afraid to escape the rat-race and live as the unique, beautiful, creative individuals they believe themselves to be. After all, it's always safer to be a rat.

I'm reminded of a line - as so many things do - from a movie... Kissing Jessica Stein. The player said 'Anais Nin said we don't see things as they are - we see things as we are' - that said, and not wishing to wax poetically (as others here seem to do) let me simply proclaim this - for me Then we came to the end was a great read... and I miss it now that it's done. pdc

I really enjoyed reading this book. I appreciate what some of the other reviewers have said about the characters being unlikable, but I think that's kind of the point -- work has become the new family in America (and you don't necessarily "like" your family) and even that is slowly being taken away from people. I chuckled throughout the book, but there was a moment, in the last third, during the climactic workplace sequence, when I stopped and really thought about the scenario...and I stopped and laughed my head off. It's nice to read something comic and subtle.

If you are looking for a serious, deep, book of literary significance, this is probably not the book for you. However, if you want to read a light humorous book that is a lot of fun, then this would be a good choice.

This book explores all the thoughts, whispers, rumors, jealousies, fears, hopes, and other various emotions of a group of people that work together. Obviously as in most forms of entertainment, it is taken to the next step, but I suspect anybody that has worked in an office environment will find themselves laughing out loud as the characters exhibit behaviors that are dangerously close to actual people we work with!

The narration of the book is unique. I read mostly fiction and I have never read a book that was presented quite like this before. If I described it you might think it could never work, but it does, so just try it and see.

I loved about the first third of this book. Felt it was edgy, fun, creative, and made me laugh out loud. Then it was just more and more and more -- and I thought I would never get to the end. About the last third I read in one setting. I won't repeat the plot, you've got that -- I just felt it would have been twice as good and twice as effective if it would have been shorter. Maybe that was the author's intent -- I felt just like those people employed by that ad agency -- when will this end? And then when it was over, looking back put it all in a different perspective.

This book is like one of those fulfilling, reciprocal conversations with somebody that completely gets you, made all the more potent because one does not need direct advertising experience to fully understand it. It is effortlessly identifiable, a real story with real characters.

Absurd, poignant, and uproariously funny, the most terrifying thing about this novel (besides Ferris' talent as a writer) is the realization that the most outlandish happenings depicted on the page are completely possible.

Kudos to Ferris for illuminating the possibilities and intricacies inherent in office life.

A significant literary achievement.

Finished this engrossing novel this afternoon. Still a little emotionally impaired by it. Still jangled by its compassion and humor. Still reeling with the author's powers of observation.
Add me to the ranks of confused-by-the-negative-reviews. I'm sorry, but this is a page-turner, folks. "Not get into it"? This layered story lays bare much, much more than office ennui. This is a novel about inner lives, dreams private and public, and how we, social animals all, connect and disconnect and sometimes connect again. People say the characters are thinly drawn? Dickens-esque in its characterization, I'd say. It's also very funny.

An office dalliance leads to impending maternity. A coworker mourns her child's death. A corporate best-girl refuses to face issues of her own mortality until she finds herself turning from it minute by minute. A shattered individual shares the Emerson quotes that keep his quirkily heroic persona together with whomever he sees may be similarly troubled. Another tries to make his way free of friendship, turning away from even admitting witness of non-official office events.

Meanwhile, the rest of the office gets together to kill time, compete for first-discovery rights on information, try to make sense of the world through group consensus, and keep their creative saws sharpened in the dot-com downturn.

I love Then We Came to the End. It is a wonderfully sympathetic novel of work relationships. Just what should "work" mean to a person? What attachments, what level of attachments, what kind of caring, is normal on the job? And isn't it almost too painfully obvious how frail and silly anyone we know is, really? This is a wonderfully real take on office life, exhibiting a refreshingly well-grounded, sympathetic view of multiple office characters.

The narration exhibits a kind of sympathetic ambivalence in its examination of a working social group. In a world where so many colorful characters are written off as "crazy," Ferris patiently gets to motives. The narrator, written in first-person plural, thinks and feels the same as thinking people assessing confusing situations in this modern world. One can feel admiration and jealousy at once, one can cop to the noble and the prurient.

It's a fine examination of what people think and do; and what it means to take action; what it means to witness and to participate.

[...]

This book was an enjoyable read. I think that it accurately describes the situation of anyone who works in a job they don't really like, whether that job is in an office or not. I certainly could relate... Very funny. Good read. I look forward to more from the author.

I will be the first to say that in the beginning of reading this novel, I was incredibly disappointed. I could not, for the life of me, understand why this book had received such incredible praise. However, around 250 pages in, the story has a dramatic change of focus and some brilliant character development rises to the surface. Additionally, as others have said, the last 20 pages are truly unique and show a literary insight that surpasses that which I would have originally credited the author.

To the negative reviewers who all admit to not finishing the book, your review really does present an unfair bias. Though it is problematic that it takes the book so long to get started, which is why I did not give it five stars, it is a great read.

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 doing so even while using the first person plural "we" narrator throughout most of the book. Highly recommended!

Yes, we do love this book. We liked this workplace, chaos-inspired novel as much as Rabid: A Novel by T.k. Kenyon and Bridge of Sighs by Russo.

The workplace in question in this book is an advertising office, the place where lies are born, in the cash-flush but downward-spiralling economy of the late 1990s. The tensions between the characters are fascinating and richly detailed with the unusual choice of the first-person plural for the narrative, "We." "We" becomes almost as ominous as the giant, mutant ants in "Them."

The chaos that results from this deteriorating society is fascinating. It's a great read.

I could not put this book down. Just very well written and fascinating. I have been part of a dying workplace. I faced, and was, a victim of layoffs, I even have had the fear of a disgruntled worker coming back to get us. And yet, merrily we rolled along. Bickering over chairs, over office affairs, over each other. Trying to maintain some kind of normalcy as our tidy worlds crumbled beneath us. In short, it all just rang so true for me.

I wish I could quickly come to the end of this chapter...and maybe I did. The story does not entice and it's clear the author is trying ror a stripped-down style...unfortunately, it is without insight and is, therefore, just cold...flash-frozen fiction. I'd lay the blame for this at the feet of the editor. The author was not well served..

A good book for me is one that you won't forget. I won't forget this one. One of the characters tries to get through a day by quoting lines from The Godfather - that's laugh-out-loud funny. The mix of that level of humor with a topic as serious as cancer is very well done, as is the ending of the book. Anyone that has ever worked in the cube world will like it - you will recognize some of the characters as being like people you have known, only amplified a million times.

While this is an easy and humorous book to read, it also succinctly describes the tensions that exist within an office atmosphere. Set in a time following the heyday of "Mad Men", advertising is losing popularity and therefore jobs are also disappearing. As the tight group loses members, the remaining people anxiously look at each other wondering who will be next. Furniture mysteriously disappears at the slightest hint of the departure of an employee. The congenial family atmosphere nearly disappears, but manages to reinvent itself as the work place reinvents itself. Very entertaining in a bittersweet way.

Having read some of the other reviews, I apparently dropped the ball on this one. I'm a big fan of the public library and due to the holidays I was only able to make it to page 169 when I had to return it. I would've renewed, but the demand for this book is very high and that was not an option. I was ready to rip on this book as there was little going for it up to this point. Descriptions like "wildly funny" and "hilarious" should not be allowed on book jackets. It's best to let the reader discover that for himself. Ah but such is marketing in the book world. "Put your hip boots on and prepare to wade it's worth the work" would perhaps be a more apt description. While I'm blind to the ending of this book, I'd like to think that after 169 pages an author would have achieved something more than what Mr. Ferris did with this one.

At the risk of sounding like a snob, I have to think that any reviewers saying this book is boring or bad are just not good readers, or should stick to action packed genre fiction. This is one of the more incredible books I've read in recent years. It's slow-paced but every sentence is delicious...it's incredibly fresh, full of humor and sharp observation about people, work, and life. There are a lot of characters, so if you read it on and off over the course of a couple months, you probably won't feel as engaged with the story...it's a great read if you have time to really plow through it. You'll become incredibly interested in the characters in their glorious weird individuality and you'll become totally engaged in their mundane, gossipy lives. If you stick with it, the book becomes genuinely moving and even truly exciting at its climax. It's incredibly original and such a rewarding read if you have a taste for subtletly, humor, and human observation. If you find yourself bored by it, stick to the da vinci code.

I think the strongest points of this book are the humorous sections, and the weakest are the drama sections. This is not to say I didn't care about the characters and their sometimes sad, futile work situations. But, there are some stretches of this book that stretched a little too far and I fell my attention wander a bit. Good book, but not the best.

This book occupies that strange terrain which is both comical and heart-rending, making me think of the extremely dissimilar work Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. One minute the reader is laughing and the next minute wincing. I admired the author's ear for dialogue, and for capturing the desperation of attempting to maintain one's dignity when "playing for small stakes" -- one character's desperation to keep a favorite chair that has not been officially assigned to him is palpable. The author brilliantly uses the workplace as a vehicle for observations about gender relations, power struggles, and "the human condition" in general.

Then We Came to the End is a novel about what seems like 18,000 immature, self-centered, arrogant and idiotic advertising agency employees. It walks through each of their numerous quirks and the migraine-inducing wait to be next in line to be fired. While parts were mildly funny and touching, it was just the endless banalities of cube life. And I get it - the point is to focus on how office life can slowly drive you insane and turn normal people into gossip-mongering, unproductive, lifeless employees - but it just wasn't good. I didn't connect with the characters in a meaningful way, and parts that were supposed to be funny just didn't hit the mark... I agree with a previous reviewer that I cannot believe this is one of the store's Best so Far books, it was a struggle for me to even finish the book.

Brilliant. Creative. Unique.

I have never read anything quite like this book. Calling it "Office Space, or The Office" in text does not do it justice. This is not so much a novel about office life, but a parable of life itself set in an office. Brilliant character development without development (a linear development, where the reader doesn't get to peek behind the curtain at the character, but knows where they are going). Funny, touching, sad. Just a brilliant effort by Ferris.

This is a tedious book about an advertising firm going down the tubes, and as I got to the end I felt it was a fate well-deserved! The employees here are a bunch of talentless, juvenile, cruel people who care about no one and nothing. The only human characters that appear are harassed; the employees don't do any work and seem to have no purpose, no families, no lives.

The author's trick of writing in first person plural only added to my impatience. There's a reason the novel form is usually written in first person singular or from an omniscient narrator's point of view--we need a viewpoint, a pair of eyes through which to view the world of the story. Here there's nothing. A middle section, suddenly told from the point of view of Lynn Mason, a coldly competent executive who is terrified and alone as she faces cancer, was a sudden relief from the craziness. I suppose this novel was supposed to be funny, but I didn't get it.

Like many people, I was excited to read a new book, by a new author, that had received great critical reviews.

Yes, I liked his writing style, but I kept looking for the "great truths" that are revealed in great writing.... Sure, I found a couple, but nothing beyond what I saw in "Office Space" (the movie), and certainly not as funny.

I want to read this author again, when he actually has something to SAY.

Oh this was amazing. its been a long time since I've read adult fiction that took my breath away and this absolutely did. It is so so hard to pull off 3rd person plural narration, and when someone just asked me what it was about, all I could say was 'working in an office in Chicago" but it was fine fine writing indeed.

This is a tedious book about an advertising firm going down the tubes, and as I got to the end I felt it was a fate well-deserved! The employees here are a bunch of talentless, juvenile, cruel people who care about no one and nothing. The only human characters that appear are harassed; the employees don't do any work and seem to have no purpose, no families, no lives.

The author's trick of writing in first person plural only added to my impatience. There's a reason the novel form is usually written in first person singular or from an omniscient narrator's point of view--we need a viewpoint, a pair of eyes through which to view the world of the story. Here there's nothing. A middle section, suddenly told from the point of view of Lynn Mason, a coldly competent executive who is terrified and alone as she faces cancer, was a sudden relief from the craziness. I suppose this novel was supposed to be funny, but I didn't get it.

Like many people, I was excited to read a new book, by a new author, that had received great critical reviews.

Yes, I liked his writing style, but I kept looking for the "great truths" that are revealed in great writing.... Sure, I found a couple, but nothing beyond what I saw in "Office Space" (the movie), and certainly not as funny.

I want to read this author again, when he actually has something to SAY.

Oh this was amazing. its been a long time since I've read adult fiction that took my breath away and this absolutely did. It is so so hard to pull off 3rd person plural narration, and when someone just asked me what it was about, all I could say was 'working in an office in Chicago" but it was fine fine writing indeed.

This book was good, not great. I did not find the plot to be a very compelling plot. However, it was simply good enough to keep rolling through the book. The book did have it's funny moments, but most if it is simply mildly amusing.

I give it a four (4) for being an interesting read with some humorous parts, but it really didn't have the LOL moments to justify a 5.

An intriguing read that always causes you to wonder. It is written in a way that I think we can all relate to, listening to people tell their own stories and envisioning the characters as those we work with every day.

This book is not worth a lengthy review.

I read to page 63 and had to stop. The author wasn't giving me any suspense, important information, or hope that the story was going to get any better than office gossip, shenanigans, politics and power. I don't find that absorbing or worthy of my time.

Yes, it reminded me of the current TV sensation, "The Office," but I don't like that show either and for the same reasons. I don't like soap operas: They're filled with uninspiring, insipid, critical, self-absorbing characters.

So, THIS is a national bestseller? Well, forgive me (no, don't), but my taste in books runs differently.

This was one of the most painful to read books I have ever encountered (and that's saying a lot). I have read my fair share of boring or horribly written books, but this one takes the cake. I couldn't hardly wait to be finished! The only reason I was able to get to the end, is a friend of mine (from work) wanted to discuss it when I was done. If it hadn't been for his excitement over the book, I would never have even read this type of book, but then I thought, why not try something different. Boy do I wish I hadn't been so adventurous! There was absolutely NOTHING redeeming or of good value about this book in my opinion. I CAN NOT believe that this book has been soooo critically acclaimed, or that it has gotten so much hype! Anyway, I can never get the hours of reading that I wasted on this book back, but you don't have to make the same mistake.

Please read this book! There's nothing I should tell you besides that -- anything I might say will diminish your joy in discovering for yourself Ferris' felicitous style in this howlingly funny and chillingly thoughtful novel. It is the best first novel I've come across since "Catch-22", with which it bears a lovely kinship. (For Pianosa, think five upper floors in a downtown Chicago skyscraper. For the Army Air Force, think an unnamed ad agency. For WWII, think the economic crash of 2000.) This is a high-wire act, starting with Ferris' brilliant take on the omniscient narrative voice (that first word!) and just building delight and literary excitement right through to the last scene -- the last words. Damn -- I've already said too much. Just read it!

I read the reviews on the cover and they all raved, so I bought it. I barely got through the 100 page rule - i.e. you have to read 100 pages minus your age. It's about an advertising agency and the people in that agency so I'm not sure why it would be interesting and it's not. It's so boring and vacuous i did not complete it and can't believe the fuss.

However Josh Ferris is a good writer but Wim Wenders is a good movie maker and his movies are still boring. I can't recommend it.

This was a worthwhile and enjoyable book. The characters were funny and reminded me of people I can imagine seeing in corporate America (at least those in a previous job I was in). It's nice to read a book that's set in a location many of us are familiar with- the office.

I had high hopes for this book, and can't remember the last time I was so completely disappointed. It had its moments of insight and humor, but not many. It was far from hysterical; it was rather dreary and tiresome. Aside from finding it repetitive, cutesy, and smug, I was irritated by the narrator's use of "we," yet the narrator was never identified (not that important), and seemed to be always an outside observer, never speaking to anyone (using "I"), and never being spoken to directly. It didn't work to try to have it both ways; being a part of the "we," but never having a moment of "I."

At first I thought the middle section about Lynn was a mistake regarding point of view (suddenly an omniscient narrator, with thoughts and actions that would have been impossible for the original narrator to know about). But we later find out that this was not a clumsy error, but deliberate in that it expresses someone else's point of view. But the way that's revealed is just oh-so-clever and way too gimmicky. It really doesn't work as literature, at least not in this book.

Some of the characters are indistinguishable from others, and it just seems like Ferris was trying for the "kitchen sink" approach to squeezing in varying kinds of life situations.

And I just don't get the end. I really don't get what the author-narrator is trying to say. It comes across, again, as trying to be really clever, but I find it meaningless, and it leaves me just scratching my head. I don't understand how any of his initial readers could have thought "wow," or "that's deep," or anything like that, to encourage him to keep it that way.

All in all, I cannot recommend this book. Maybe Ferris' other works are better than this one, but based on this book, I'm not likely to seek them out.

This 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.

The first hundred pages and the last fifty are revealing and enjoyable. In between, it's a little too much of the same, and the writing style does get to be a bit burdensome. As the CEO of a 25 person firm, however, I think that this is highly representative of the highs and lows, but more importantly, the daily grind, that many find themsleves in. As they say, familiarity breeds comtempt and this crew is highly contemptible. While most of us don't don a clown suit and shoot 'em up, I'm sure that many have given it more than idle curiousity. I'm wondering right now who of the 25 in my office has me in their sights?

"Then We Came to the End" is funny in concept - overpaid and over-indulged ad agency people suddenly confronted with economic reality and layoffs resorting to various coping mechanisms. The most obvious reaction is increased water cooler talk, which simply reinforces the argument that there needs to be even more layoffs. Ferris also stirs other worker miseries into the pot - marriage breakup, murder of a young child, breast cancer, death, etc.

However, layoffs and the other problems are far from funny - at least for those involved, and the scenario quickly wears thin. If you want office-life comedy, watch "The Office" (NBC) instead of reading this book.

I really loved this book. It gave an interesting perspective into modern-day advertising agencies (aka, people finna lose their jobs). And the ending is fantastic, the icing on the cake. Read this if you like advertising stuff, real life stuff, and Chicago. And good endings!

This book is more than the television show, The Office, and the movie, Office Space. It shows the poignant moments in tragic times when characters become vulerable due to horrible losses and hilarious during nuclear meltdowns. It makes the guy or girl who sits next to you in cubicles more than a co-worker, an actual person with a history of accomplishments and setbacks. It is brillant in the way it use the word "we" to encompass the employees who find themselves turning into a family or a tribe of misfits.

having worked in a number of corporations and lived through lay-offs, buy-outs and a hostile takeover, I'd say this is certainly a realistic view of life in corporate America, and its not a pretty picture. I thought most of it was sad, not funny, particularly that the employees are entirely concerned with "looking busy" rather than saving their jobs by getting more business.

I struggled through it

I dunno. The trivial of peoples' lives is still the trivia of peoples' lives if you dont take them seriously. Which this novel doesnt. It's well-written, of course. Smart, of course. "Ironic" of course. But the distance between the author and his characters makes it hard to care about them much. So it ends up being awfully close to that which it is gently satirising - office drivel.

I wouldnt mind reading a novel about office work that takes its subject seriously. Since that's where tens of millions of people spend their lives. And lives are a serious subject.

On another note: read "The Futurist", which is both funny and ironic, and in addition, takes its subject seriously (enough, anyway).

I just recently started working in an office- and I can say- if you've ever worked in one, you can relate. You feel as if you know all of these people, situations and relationships- however because of the way that it's written, it remains fresh, funny and at times poignant. I rarely buy books, ESPECIALLY in hard cover, but I don't regret this purchase for a minute.

I see that Ferris is in Time this week (for his new novel, "The Unnamed"). In the article "Then We Came to the End" is referred to as "a knockout". I just read this piece and found it muddy, maudlin, gimmicky, over-populated, predictable and awkwardly executed. And here this freshman-level writer is in Time! THIS is why I try not to read current fiction. There's just something Faustian going on here, but instead of feeling like I am on the right side of Heaven, I end up feeling like someone has given me crazy-pills!!

This book is fantastic. The minute details of our everyday and mundane lives become enthralling. The point of view that Joshua Ferris writes with, which is that of everyone in the office, kept me searching for the author when in fact there was none. He moves around often, keeping it interesting and fast-paced. Ferris' writing style is paramount here, it's a quiet work of genius.

Good reviews and rated among the top books of the year I found this to be a dull, turgid book that I could not finish. This despite my habit of completing almost every book that I start. There is humor, deadpan of a sort, but so repetitive and without meaning that one just doesn't engage or care about the characters. It bears some resemblance to the Dilbert cartoons but too much is just too much. I suppose it might bring some relief to those who toil in cubicles but I just found it without any real value.

This book reminded me, in very positive ways, of Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections": the antic narrative pace, the details that create real characters, and the poignant surprise that revealed, when I'd finished the final page, the true depth of the story. Creativity and compassion may be where we least expect to find them!

"Are you bored yet?" asks the writer in the middle of the first chapter. Yes, in fact, I was bored, to tears. Bored by mundane dialogue spoken by stereotypical people doing Sisyphean tasks. Sure, the mundanity of contemporary office life is the point of the story, but merely transcribing droll dialogue and reporting on banal office life does not make literature. It's just a mirror of our lives, sans insight, humor or gravitas. There are too many thin characters, too few fresh revelations and not one passage well-crafted enough to make me go back for a second helping. Maybe the story gets going and the writing starts to sparkle after page 115, because that's where the book came to an end for me.

As an aside, I work in advertising and, like most books/movies/TV show set in the ad business, this one only gets it 80% right. It's a petty comment (about a petty business), but if you work in advertising you'll find the inaccuracies distracting.

If you've ever worked at an agency, you'll recognize each character as one of your coworkers (or you!). And you'll feel sick alongside them as layoffs continue and pro bono jobs replace paying clients. It's hard to keep track of all the characters at first, but the author helps out by reminding you who's who throughout ... plus there are fewer and fewer as the story progresses. I highly recommend this book!

I was so eager to read this book. I spent more years than I care to remember working in a PR office, so I thought this book couldn't fail; even if it was light-weight and/or badly written I would like it, I thought. Wrong. I gave it a good try, 100 pages or so. But at the end of the 100 pages I felt no connection with any of the characters and, even more deadly, I hadn't laughed or snickered once. Sorry for the negative review. I give it 2 stars for a good attempt.

I picked up this book with high expectations. I usually decide within the first 50 pages whether a book is worth my time. With this book it turned out to be an excruciating 50 pages. It was depressing and boring ramble from a guy who seems to feel really sorry for himself and badly needs a dose of prozac. I need a dose after reading just 50 pages. Who knows what the whole book would have done to me...Luckily I'll never know as it is currently in my recycling bin. Have nothing against the author. His writing style is unique and maybe a more cheerful book in the future may interest me. This book however was boring at best.

It seemed like one long endless existential crisis. The characters have this deep well of wisdom but they don't exercise it personally, just pontificate from it to others. And 80% of the dialog wasn't natural, but a forced excuse for people to explain their background or thoughts.

In this way I thought this read like a generic, not-funny sitcom. Office Space covered much of the same ground, but it was funny.

So many of the asides and tangents in the book are simply not interesting (all the trouble about office furniture and serial numbers, I don't care). And reading other peoples gossip and rumors, again, I don't care. I think the book is not as good as it's made out to be and does not deserve the attention it gets. Ironically, I think it's success is due to the fact that it's been marketed well.

The use of first person plural was done well, was appropriate, and not a distraction. But other than that, this book was just generic fiction that will be forgotten about in five years. It's not literature.

I worked for two years in a call center in bank of America, and therefore truly enjoyed the book. Ofcourse i am not saying you have to work in a corporate world to understand and enjoy this book, but it definetly helps. It is an intelligent and humorous books. Without getting in too deep, or analyzing the book too much, you get to know and like like the characters. Its very worth a read, i have read it several times myself, and enjoy it bheter eachtime.

If you're looking for a serious, traditional novel, look elsewhere. This is a fresh, fun, quirky story that compels and entertains even as you realize that not that much is going on. It doesn't matter. You fall in love with the world that's created, the pathetic nature of the characters are so horrible as to be totally endearing, and there's a truth to the writing that refreshes. I loved, loved, loved this book. Go with it.

I read 2-3 novels a month, and this one has completely bored me from page one on. Im not sure what he is trying to say, except that we are all stuck in ruts and fear for our careers, and we don't need him to tell us that. Sharing his trivialities of his everyday office life is nothing more than an overblown, unorganized minute by minute journal, written by someone who has nothing better to do then share his day to day boredom with the world for money. I put it down FINALLY at page 74, HOPING...if not BEGGING for it to become organized, thoughtful, and at least slightly entertianing. Needless to say, it was brought to the used book store within a week for exchange.

This book is for anyone who works or has ever worked in an office setting. Ferris' commentary regarding the employees of a struggling Chicago ad agency is stunning. Though it is not the "laugh riot" that some would claim it does have moments that will leave you laughing out loud and your spouse asking "What's so funny?" It cannot be explained only enjoyed immensely by the reader. From the curious nature of the characters to the subtle pranks pulled...this book is enjoyable through and through. A must read!!

I'm about a fifth of the way through this book, and I'm having a really tough time getting through it. Like many of the other reviewers, I was impressed by the praise it was getting and was expecting a quick, entertaining read. Instead, reading it has dragged on for 2 weeks (I actually stopped and read Generation Kill, which is the same size, in 2 days in between). A lot of the negative reviewers have mentioned the Office in comparison, and I think that highlights how poorly the characters are developed in this book. On the Office, Michael is a massive douche 80% of the time, but the other 20% is used humanize him, make him sympathetic, and provide insights on why he is the way he is. As a result, you care about the character, and his bumbling comes off funny and less anger-inducing. That is not the case in this book. So far, I have seen nothing to make any of the characters endearing. As a result, you have the guy that plays asinine pranks, the guy that prattles on about his "buckshelves", and the guy that constantly interrups. They are all hateable, because there's nothing that makes them stand out in any way except for their annoying quirks. I don't think I can finish this one, which bugs me, because I rarely put a book down, and I'm also tempted to find out what this "High school writing" ending is.

I found myself wondering, how would someone spend their last night before undergoing breast surgery?

And, why not answer every work related question with a quote from "The Godfather?" No one would notice, at least not right away.

This is a work of genius -- funny, smart, poignant. Mr. Vonnegut is smiling.

The best thing about this book is the promise of the beginning pages. After about three chapters, though, it kind of falls apart. I didn't feel the tension escalating or things worsening, in spite of the continued layoffs at the ad agency. After the third chapter, I skimmed a bit to see if it picked up again but it didn't, so I stopped.

I read 2-3 novels a month, and this one has completely bored me from page one on. Im not sure what he is trying to say, except that we are all stuck in ruts and fear for our careers, and we don't need him to tell us that. Sharing his trivialities of his everyday office life is nothing more than an overblown, unorganized minute by minute journal, written by someone who has nothing better to do then share his day to day boredom with the world for money. I put it down FINALLY at page 74, HOPING...if not BEGGING for it to become organized, thoughtful, and at least slightly entertianing. Needless to say, it was brought to the used book store within a week for exchange.

This book is for anyone who works or has ever worked in an office setting. Ferris' commentary regarding the employees of a struggling Chicago ad agency is stunning. Though it is not the "laugh riot" that some would claim it does have moments that will leave you laughing out loud and your spouse asking "What's so funny?" It cannot be explained only enjoyed immensely by the reader. From the curious nature of the characters to the subtle pranks pulled...this book is enjoyable through and through. A must read!!

I'm about a fifth of the way through this book, and I'm having a really tough time getting through it. Like many of the other reviewers, I was impressed by the praise it was getting and was expecting a quick, entertaining read. Instead, reading it has dragged on for 2 weeks (I actually stopped and read Generation Kill, which is the same size, in 2 days in between). A lot of the negative reviewers have mentioned the Office in comparison, and I think that highlights how poorly the characters are developed in this book. On the Office, Michael is a massive douche 80% of the time, but the other 20% is used humanize him, make him sympathetic, and provide insights on why he is the way he is. As a result, you care about the character, and his bumbling comes off funny and less anger-inducing. That is not the case in this book. So far, I have seen nothing to make any of the characters endearing. As a result, you have the guy that plays asinine pranks, the guy that prattles on about his "buckshelves", and the guy that constantly interrups. They are all hateable, because there's nothing that makes them stand out in any way except for their annoying quirks. I don't think I can finish this one, which bugs me, because I rarely put a book down, and I'm also tempted to find out what this "High school writing" ending is.

I found myself wondering, how would someone spend their last night before undergoing breast surgery?

And, why not answer every work related question with a quote from "The Godfather?" No one would notice, at least not right away.

This is a work of genius -- funny, smart, poignant. Mr. Vonnegut is smiling.

The best thing about this book is the promise of the beginning pages. After about three chapters, though, it kind of falls apart. I didn't feel the tension escalating or things worsening, in spite of the continued layoffs at the ad agency. After the third chapter, I skimmed a bit to see if it picked up again but it didn't, so I stopped.

Quirky book, with enjoyable dialog and odd situational humor, but little in the way of plot substance, or more importantly for this sort of book, character development. I am not upset that I read it, but if you are someone who has a job and only reads a couple of books a month, then you can better spend your time elsewhere.

Brilliantly observed and written, funny and true. The first-person plural may be a gimmick, but it sure worked for me. Anybody who has ever spent time in a cubicle farm, wondering when the axe is going to fall, will find many points of resonance in this novel.

I have read hundreds of books during the past few years and I can honestly say, Then we came to the end by Joshua Ferris has got to be THE dullest, lifeless and repetitive novels I've ever read, everything was based on hearsay, Tom did this.. Joe pope did that and Benny did neither, the lack of personality portrayed by Joshua Ferris truly kills the spirit of the book, The covers were filled with charismatic reviews depicting how funny and entertaining this novel is, in the end, I was thorougly enigmatic this novel came to an end.

As someone that is currently operating in a fragile work environment I found this novel to be a small miracle, finding the humor and trivialness in the everyday events of a group of co-workers. I defy anyone to read this novel and not wonder about former long-since-gone co-worker's lives. A great novel that I will recommend to everyone I know.

I think this novel would have been a lot better if it were about 150 pages shorter. It just dragged and dragged in parts. I had heard the ending was great (it is) and I was determined to get there, but found myself skimming big sections of repetitive text that didn't add much to the story.

Saw in NY Times as one of the top 10 books of 2007 and decided to give it a shot. Literally, after every chapter, I would put the book down and ponder what I just read and say out loud, "this is the most witty, truthful, well written novel I read in a long time". OUT LOUD! Character development was incredible and I could basically place personality after personality with people in my own office, and I'm not even in advertising. The title is perfect and was sad to see it end.

People that don't care for the book and have given it bad reviews are either taking it too seriously or unemployed!

The text below is what I felt when I had finished about 60 pages. I made myself gut it out until about page 110 - then I did actually want to continue and did like it better. I would change my stars to 3 if they allowed that. It was fine, but I really don't understand why it was so critically acclaimed. The content was different than most books I see on the shelves, true - but heck a much more compelling study on this subject might be the television show "Office".

Someone gave my husband and I this along with 8 of the other 10 top books according to the New York Times. Ever go to some of the movies the critics really think is top k
otch? Come out wondering what where they thinking. Ditto on this book. Maybe my husband will feel differently and convince me I should read past the first 59 pages. I planned on trying to get to 100 - going to try Man Gone Done now. May come back to it - hard to think someone thought this was a best book when I just finished Pillars of the Earth - now there is a good book where you actually care about the people. Hoping the other fictional books are good - this one turned out to be a poor first try.

Do not waste your time or your money. The characters have no character and garner no emotional attachment. I did not care if they lived or died. The conversations are cumbersome, repetitive and witless. The content is vacuous, shallow and lacking.

Some reviews have said that if you liked "the Office" then you would like this book. I loved "The Office" - it is comedy genius. This book does not deserve to be mentioned in the same paragraph, let alone sentence as "The Office".

I genuinely do not believe that I have ever read a worse book than this - I only finished it out of a bloody-minded determination and a belief that it must improve. Sadly it never did but thankfully it did come to an end.

How on earth did this book receive such acclaim? Yes, it is an amusing repartee of day-to-day cubicle life but please, it's a sitcom not a novel. It takes until at least page 200 to discern any sort of a plot, which is flimsy. I am not alone in this opinion. Based on high reviews on this site as well as its lofty position on the top 10 novel list at Time magazine and the New York Times, my book club selected it for our January read. We all agreed--it's not a great book, or even a good book. Cmon people, speak out! This is the Bridges of Madison County of this decade and, unfortunately, another tie to the great (and very literary!) state of Iowa.

It seemed a bit too long. And style trumped substance. The third person PoV interlude felt unnecessary, but the unusual second person plural PoV worked well here. That's what I remember more than the plot and characters.

This is one of the best books I've read in years: really unique, funny, and sad. I was drawn to it initially because of the brilliant cover design - fantastic work by designer Jamie Keenan by the way, and too bad the paperback editions don't reuse the same design - and lucked out judging this great book by its cover.

The professional reviewers must be starved for a good book because they have overrated this book. I downloaded the audio version and I was really looking forward to a good story on office politics. The only "story" is that of the woman with cancer and there is nothing special about that character. Books and movies that focus on particular professions can be interesting like the TV show Man Men and the novel Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience by Jill Nelson. But this is not such a book. Not recommended.

I read this book with my book club, and it was one of our least-favorites. Definitely not a page-turner - over half of our book club did not finish this book (which is unusual). It's a beach read - I prefer to read books with a little more substance. The narrative style was very interesting but the only literary asset that any of us identified.

This novel may be 50 to 100 pages too long, but when it ends, it really packs an emotional punch and then you'll "get it" and better understand all that went before.

If you work in an advertising agency, you MUST read this, especially if you're on the creative side, or "Creative creatives writing creative creative" as one character says.

Really an amazing achievement!

A truly great book - a very humanistic and nuanced portrayal of the intimacies of office life. The writing is simply wonderful and captures all of the complexities of these office relationships in a seemingly effortless fashion. I so enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by this author.

Please forgive the annoyingly appropo title adjective...but I too used to work in a cube and found this book wonderful. Dear Joshua, did you also have acronym-guy in the works, because there is one in every office. You know the type, "Hey Michelle, did you get my RFP from the ACAP's VP? Enjoyable and satisfying read, but I was left with one question...whatever happened to Joe Pope?

Ferris's novel has a lot of bravura technical accomplishment in terms of style (not plot). Clearly he is perceptive and can describe a character with economy and insight.

But the chair sequences are deadening. Lynn's night out doesn't fit the "we," and the paintball passage halts any momentum that may have built until then. This seems more like a springboard for exposing corporate pettiness and to showcase writerly language than a novel.

I'd give this book 2 stars, except that Ferris deserves credit for his reach. So 3 and good luck to him in future novels.

This book, while poignant and thought provoking isn't funny. I kept hearing it being touted as a comedy and brought it as such. Had I known I could perhaps have read the book with a mindset that would have allowed enjoyment. Rather than enter into a full review I would rather just caution those who are after a laugh to stay away.

Like a lot of advertising, the characters in this book seemed too light. Their concerns were light. Their conversations were thin. Their collective viewpoint on issues were forgettable. I don't get the buzz on this one. Perhaps ad agency workers would/could relate.

There have been many other thorough reviews written, so I'll just say simply that I thought this book was terribly unoriginal. The last quarter actually had moments of brilliance, but the first three-fourths was a real chore to get through.

An hilarious story with a twist that will leave you wanting to try and attempt some of these tales at your own office. If you are in the advertising industry, especially on the creative, you will relate to this book. Great quick read.

Some really good writing and an interesting premise, but not an appealing read. Is it reading a first person plural narration? Maybe. Or could it be the fact that it's more a vertical story than a horizontal one? I'm not sure. A lot of people like this book, but I wouldn't recommend it.

This debut novel is a hilarious view of office life that everyone who has ever worked in corporate America can relate to. Josh Ferris truly understands the human persona, and brings to life all of the characters we have encountered in our every day life. It is funny and touching. I highly recommend this book!

I bought this book because I really enjoyed Ferris's short fiction. I found it hard to stay interested in this novel as none of the characters, in my opinion, were developed enough for me to actually care about them.

This has to be the worst book I have ever read. I love to read and I work in a cubicle. So this book sounded like it might be good. This book made me want to poke my eyes out. It was so boring and didn't make sense. It jumped from funny little stories to a sad story about cancer. I actually threw this book in the trash. I have never done that before. It took forever to read because it did not grab my attention. I forced myself to stick with it but I couldn't even finish it. I think I had one or two chapters left.

This book was billed as "A terrific first novel....Awfully funny." This should have read "Disappointing last novel....Awful".

It wasn't that I lost the will to live as I am still here just that I did not find that it made me even smile, let alone laugh.

My apologies to the author, after all he did write in good English - or should that be American and tied together many strands of office life and the social activity as he envisaged it and in a way that I would struggle to do.

But I feel very let down by the promise of a laugh or two and the actual lack of anything like this happening at least up to page 62. This is where I decided to call a halt as nothing had caused my chuckle muscles even to twitch.

I have experience of watching paint dry being a decorator and do declare this a rewarding activity compared to reading 'Then we came to the end'.

Comedy can be a way of confronting harsh or difficult facts of life and learning not to take ourselves so seriously. The text in this book lacks life in most part and when there is a spark of a basic truth it is sad and hopeless. Being funny about what ails us can help us to put it in perspective and when we go through those trials we can remember the joke in it all.

Remember the final scene in the film 'Life of Brian' - made by the Monty Python people - where the condemned sing 'Always look on the bright side of life' while nailed to their crosses. How many millions of people know that song and whistle and sing along with it when it is played?

Joshua, I apologise again as you are a fellow human being with all the strengths and frailties same as me but I couldn't get past page 62. Please try writing another novel but perhaps a murder mystery or other serious drama. You might find some funny bits appearing in it even if they aren't meant to be.

Regards
Richard Phillips

The poignancy arrives after a first half that often had me laughing out loud. And as many readers have already commented, the final 100 pages may be the very best of all. I can't really recommend a book more highly than this one.

I just finished Then We Came To The End. Frankly, I thought we would never get there. Apparently, the editorial reviewers have a lower standard for hilarity than I have. While I had an occasional chuckle, it just wasn't that funny, and I could hardly wait to come to the end of each chapter, even more so, the end of the book.

Joshua Ferris' debut novel, Then We Came To The End, crossed my desk several weeks ago as a freebie being handed out by the books department at the newspaper where I work. Emblazoned with praise from the New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review ("One of the best books of the year"), Nick Hornby, as well as a medallion indicating its status as a finalist for the National Book Award in 2007, I thought surely this would be something I tore through in a single, sleep-deprived night (despite its 400-plus pages).

Yet, I've been plodding through this book for about a week now, willing myself to about page 35 and am -- uncharacteristically -- ready to give it up. The fact that I'm ready to dump it seems all the more unusual since I consider myself a big fan of all things related to office life, especially in the go-go 1990s and beyond (hell, I used write for Fast Company magazine). All I can think as I read the somewhat lifeless prose is that it comes off as a long, hackneyed navel gaze for white-collar yuppies, some of whom are still smarting over a nearly decade-old job loss.

Okay, I thought, maybe I was just hoodwinked by sneakily selective blurbs and engaging cover art. So I set out to check what some of my trusted cultural arbiters had to say. And? Universal praise. I don't get it. Writing a cover review for NYT's Book Review last Sunday, Time Magazine's James Poniewozik described the book as "expansive, great-hearted and acidly funny." Acidly funny? Give me a break!

Similarly, Slate's very talented, very smart Meghan O'Rourke heaped literary points upon the novel for what she saw as its deft use of the collective "we." Ugh. What's worse, this book apparently inspired a monthly Slate column highlighting a debut work.

Even Gawker -- which has spent so many satisfying bits and bytes skewering the likes of literary wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer -- had faint praise for Ferris and his book. Pettily, I found it nice to read the first comment posted in response to Gawker's gushing: "Sorry, but I'm not having any problems loathing Ferris or his semi-autobiographical debut novel."

Indeed.

This is a book about the stupid, everyday things that occupy our lives at work, set in an office where all of the staff is being laid off due to company financial problems. It is essentially like someone setting up cameras in multiple locations in an entirely ordinary office building and then forcing you to watch hours and hours of unedited, mundane footage. The boring, tedious, day-to-day interactions of the office staff are occasionally punctuated by someone getting fired or being laid off. This is really exciting stuff.

I have no use for this novel. It is neither interesting, entertaining, nor uplifting. About a third of the way in I kept hoping desperately that it would pick up (pace-wise) or become somewhat interesting. About halfway in, I just wanted it to end. Sadly, I read the whole thing, and if the author offered refunds, I would take one.

I also found this book annoying to read because the chapters are ridiculously long and each one starts with about a dozen sub-titles. Some nights, I like to read a couple of chapters before bed, which was just not possible with this book.

My recommendation: buy it for someone you secretly hate and tell them the ending is worth slogging through the rest.

An easy read, but not the new "Great Gatsby" (as one reviewer suggested), not the new Peter DeVries. It's comments on the intellectual, emotional, relational and spiritual level of awareness in American Culture is apt, but chilling.

Is Joshua Ferris a terrible writer? Of course not. Are the people who loved this book insane? Far from it! And not only do I heartily admire Mr. Ferris for completing a novel and getting it published - something I probably will never achieve for myself - I also respect anyone who could finish this book and find an inspiring message within. Reviews are subjective, and all I can say is that I really tried to like this book, but after reading page after page, word after word, my will to live slowly drained from my body, and my inner voice screamed, "Just Give Up Already!" But I didn't give up. But I didn't enjoy it either. I kept waiting for the agony to lessen and the uplifting experience to begin. You know it's bad (or should I say, WE know it's bad) when there's only 30 pages to go, and we still have to force ourselves to pick it up. Inside joke there! See I was paying attention. So my advice to anyone who's made it halfway through this book and loves it, is to keep going because you'll probably love it even more. But if you get to the halfway point and start debating whether to finish the whole thing, or to move on - MOVE ON! Really. Cause if you don't like it by page 190, you won't like it by page 385. Things I didn't like: The characters were so forgettable, that I think even the author had trouble keeping them straight, which may explain why he kept referring to them by their first and last names, even in dialogue. Even though none of the (numerous) characters shared a first name. I thought that was completely unrealistic. Whoever refers to their co-workers by first and last name in speech? "Oh Martha Jeffers, could you go ask Chris McDonald over there if he has the reports for Fergus Magnusson?" One particular character was called Jim Jackers, and I confess to alleviate the tedium I silently referred to him as Jim J****ss - you know like the MTV inspired movie. Now THAT made me laugh! And there was not much written about their lives outside the office. So I didn't really feel like I had a handle on the characters. Also towards the last quarter of the novel, something happens which I thought was interesting, but then turned out to be more of a red herring. By the very end, when the author talks about what's happened to some of the characters, I knew that had I connected with them, I would have found it moving, but I really didn't care. Kind of like when you go to see a movie and the soundtrack swells up when it wants the audience to cry, but instead you think it's a good time to go get popcorn. How ironic that the title of the book is Then We Came To The End, because I honestly thought I'd never reach the end! The more I read, the further away the ending seemed to get. Like in Poltergeist when the mother is running desperately towards the door, but the faster she runs, the further away the door got. I know this review is long, rambling, unfair and biased. Let me repeat - a lot of people will find much to admire about this book and rightly so. But there are people like me who wish that they could just step into a time machine and put the book back on the shelf and walk away.

Not a great read. Some may like it but I don't. There is no plot, which makes it hard to concentrate on the book in general, at least for me. It's just short stories about some ad agency employees. More of a sitcom than a book if you ask me, and not even a great one.

It will be a relief if I finish this. The odds are against it. After 160 pages, the gang at the office just gets more boring. Anyone who's worked in an office has experienced much of this, but write about it?

I hope the author has better outings. I don't like slamming him.

No matter how much we love the established names, the Roths, the Pynchons, the McCarthy's, nothing is quite so exciting as a new author. With that excitement, however, comes the peril of disappointment. Ferris does not disappoint. One gets the feeling upon reading this book that a new but permanent voice is being added to the American literary scene, and that we are lucky to have a book like this on our shelves.

Yes, it is written in the first-person plural, from the perspective of an ad agency, and yes it is laugh-out-loud funny. But the style is no gimmick--it reinforces the subtle cultural commentary offered by the book: a message leavened by the humor and delivered with the lightest of touches. This book is the full package. Ignore it at your own risk.

I have been an avid reader for more than 50 years. I checked this book out of my local library, new book section. Trust me, no one, NO ONE, has been able to finish this book. How it ever got published, I will never know. I am the last person in the world that will give up on a book. This is a waste of natural resorces. A waste of paper, a waste of carbon a waste of gasoline. Dilbert without the humor and I only forced my way through the first 100 pages. I am a viet nam vet, I will read anything, the back of a cereal box, the ingredients of a pop tart. This is the worst example of writing I have ever seen. Not funny, boring,boring,boring.

My Book Club read this book for our May meeting. Out of 6 people, no one could say anything good or redeeming about Then We Came to the End. Mr. Ferris narrates and writes without focus. The book reads like a bunch of essays and short stories loosely melded together (thus the chapter headings which look like Mr. Ferris' personal notes on which short story he is going to put where in the chapter). If I had not have been reading the book for Book Club, I would have stopped after struggling through the first 100 pages. Don't waste your time on this one. It's depressing and one-sided about life in an office.

I'm not sure why people call this book funny, because it's absolutely not. It's probably one of the strangest and most depressing books ever. I don't remember laughing, or even smirking, during the whole thing.

i was a vp/acd at the agency in chicago that josh ferris worked at as a junior copywriter. he was WAY too talented to stay in advertising, and i was wondering when he'd pop this book out.

he left voluntarily before the rolling layoffs hit him; i stuck around until they rolled over me. i recognize (very thinly disguised) people and situations in josh's book and think it's only a matter of time before he writes a really impressive work of actual fiction.

This is a sketch - painfully dragged out to novel length. Should have "come to an end" somewhere around page 50. I hung in until about page 100, and then threw in the towel. Some friends told me that it got better after that - but who cares?

A treat. New book bought in Stockholm airport to enjoy flying home. Result vacuous minutes of my life that I'll never get back. Resorted to perusing the ingfight magazine. Much wittier. Then I came to .....

We wanted to like this book and did not. If someone could explain why it was funny, please do. We are a book group of highly educated, discerning women in their 30s and 40s and are not sure what the hype is about. We just don't get it. We found the book pedantic and the voice convulted. Almost all of us have extensive experience in corporate America -- we have been in cubes, we have moved up to offices and back down to cubicles again and while the broad strokes of the book capture the work environment, it was so hard to get through the language. We found the book went on and on. Lastly, the characters were so unsympathetic we just did not care.

I could NOT read this dull, unfunny book. I got through the first 10 pages without so much as a smile, giggle, titter - it was about as funny as a rubber crutch. Thank goodness I got it at the library. Please tell me again, HOW did this book get published??????????

I am generally open to ideas. Even pointless reading, that takes me to pointless weird places. But this was the worst book i have read in years. I don't understand how these even get published. I have friends, great writers (or so i think) who have trouble getting their books published. And then comes along junk like this. Makes me wonder....
The premise of the book was great, how people in your office look at you, at different people, and comment, gossip. Could have been funny, introspective, and human. And the point of the book is still understood, that we are just "nobody" hurling on a piece of rock, a tiny speck in the vastness we call the universe. Seems very deep and psychological doesn't it? Well let me tell you, the book is nothing like it. It tries to be observant, but after every few words it returns to, "and sat around looking busy". Well, i will be busy trying to earn my 9.99 and the time, that i wasted on this book.

In a Chicago ad agency, the era of good feeling that marked most of the second Clinton term seems over. Empty cubicle syndrome frightens much of the staff as employees will be fired. Competition is fierce as symbolism like spots, chairs, and email bites represents who will survive the ordeal. Friendships are over as real survivor is being played. There are numerous stories in this agency; here are three that cross the culture.

Word in the office "plaza", coffee pot, and bathrooms is that partner Lynn Mason has breast cancer and is dying; this elates those who work for her who pray the rumor proves true because if she dies or becomes incapacitated a promotion opens up that every employee believes they earned as he or she knows they do all the work while she makes the money and receives the accolades.

In the eye of the cutting storm, recently divorced Tom Mota, wearing the same NASCAR polo shirt everyday, cites nineteenth century poetry while having temper tantrums that he hopes frightens management into keeping him employed.

Everyone below middle manager Joe Pope blames him for the downsizing; while everyone above him blames him too for not rightsizing. However, he knows his job is secure because someone needs to take the blame.

This is a terrific character driven look at the office during a period of uncertainty except for pink slips. The ensemble cast is fabulous as the audience looks deep into the varying reactions of people to the expected reductions (a euphemism for firing) as each wonders what to wear when seen on the unemployment lines. Similar in its cutting edge to Office Space but with a wider scope, fans will appreciate the aptly titled THEN WE CAME TO THE END of Joshua Ferris' wheel.

Harriet Klausner

Confession: I did not read this whole book. I read the first chapter, and I could see no reason to slog through the rest of it. Based on Entertainment Weekly's review, I expected this book to be smartly funny, but it wasn't funny at all to me. I also found the "we" thing very irksome. Fortunately, I got this book from the library, so all I wasted was my time.

Look, I know satire is hit-and-miss. You either find the whole concept funny, or you don't: that's the nature of satire. Well, I didn't find this funny.

Before I purchased the book I read the summary of what the book was about, and I thought oh this should be good. A comedy but also about a group of people I could relate my experiences to. But the disappointment was in the language that was used. When I opened the book up, four letter profanity hit me right in the face. I just threw the book away. I had no idea it would contain that kind of language.

This novel may be 50 to 100 pages too long, but when it ends, it really packs an emotional punch and then you'll "get it" and better understand all that went before.

If you work in an advertising agency, you MUST read this, especially if you're on the creative side, or "Creative creatives writing creative creative" as one character says.

Really an amazing achievement!

I don't understand the praise and reviews surrounding this repetitive, boring book. I was initially excited to set sail, and I always try to finish a book, thinking that the good stuff the critics are talking about is right around the corner, but I had to jump ship. It was such a waste.

This was one of the most painful to read books I have ever encountered (and that's saying a lot). I have read my fair share of boring or horribly written books, but this one takes the cake. I couldn't hardly wait to be finished! The only reason I was able to get to the end, is a friend of mine (from work) wanted to discuss it when I was done. If it hadn't been for his excitement over the book, I would never have even read this type of book, but then I thought, why not try something different. Boy do I wish I hadn't been so adventurous! There was absolutely NOTHING redeeming or of good value about this book in my opinion. I CAN NOT believe that this book has been soooo critically acclaimed, or that it has gotten so much hype! Anyway, I can never get the hours of reading that I wasted on this book back, but you don't have to make the same mistake.