then we came to the end – joshua ferris – 4 stars

[see mini-review by rolling over cover in the shelfari widget on the right.]

a lot of the books i read are about people who do jobs i wish i did. a lot of writers write about writers. some are about jobs so far different from my own, it’s interesting to get their perspective on life: soldiers, teachers, businessmen, even the unemployed. a lot of them shirk off the workdays of their main characters as the least interesting part of their lives to focus on their interpersonal relationships, or focus on the part of life we novel-readers can all relate too, childhood through our college years. i’ve read and enjoyed books that employ all of these settings.

this was my first time reading a novel not just about bland office life, but the very same industry i myself wake up every morning to contribute to. what a strange feeling. i’ll need to have a nice long discussion with another person not in the ad business to better see how our thoughts compare, but my guess is that it’s pretty simple; the observations and criticisms have a bit sharper bite that comes from knowing exactly what they mean.

despite the eerie familiarity, i did enjoy it quite a bit. the plural narration was a fresh way to come at it and probably the best way to underline the murmuring herd mentality that takes over among the group. their office fretting starts off funny and gets more pathetic as you get further drawn into their pettiness, but then you get moments of humanity that keep you from giving up on them. it’s not so much the silliness of the office as the angst of having a decent job and hoping you don’t lose it, while still wishing you had something more, better, different. and you certainly don’t have to work at an ad agency to relate to that.