Then We Came to the End

one of the best books I've read in a long time. I love the WE format. if you've ever worked in an office enviroment, then this is a must read

This is so much more than a literary version of The Office. It is funny and touching and all about the life and relationships we have in our office lives, but it goes way beyond that. Even better, the voice is a very unique one and in fact , I would argue, is not just one. The trick though is that transition form one to the other is seamless. This was a great read.

I want to talk about Joshua Ferris's wonderful novel Then We Came to the End in a little bit. But first, I want to talk about something I just learned because I read this book. I want to talk about abridgment.

I've always avoided abridged works. As an author, I would feel insulted having my work butchered AFTER it had been chopped to pieces for years and deemed publishable. If a work needs further editing, this should be done before publication. I get it: the publisher knows a work is too large or too difficult to attain mass appeal, so they simplify it and sell more copies. It's all about sales.

Now for years, I had it in my head that abridgment nixed unnecessary words and scenes, that it was a fairly gentle process that remedied an author's diarrhea of the pen. I still didn't agree with the process of abridging a work, but I didn't see how it could cause that much harm. Then I downloaded an audio copy of Then We Came to the End.

Something didn't seem right about my newly downloaded copy of Ferris's novel. The runtime showed as six hours. There was no way this 400-page book could be read in less time than an average night of sleep. I looked a little deeper and discovered that naughty word: ABRIDGED. Fortunately, I had a copy of the print book on hand, so I wasn't worried. Then I had an idea: What if I listened to the abridged audio as I read along? I would finally know what “abridged” really meant. So that's what I did.

What did I learn? Abridgment is not the deletion of “unnecessary words and scenes.” Abridgment is straight up altering an author's work to be more palatable. Characters are completely removed from the book. Riveting scenes are cut. Chronology is changed. The theme is lost. In Then We Came to the End, dynamics were completely changed when one or two characters were completely removed from a scene. Dialogue that is important to the story is stripped from the mouth of a character who has been eliminated only to be placed willy-nilly into the mouth of another. What were some of the things lost to abridgment in Then We Came to the End? The office shooting. Old Brizz and the totem. Martin's blindfolding of Lynn—the single act of which propels a dislikable character into a decent human being. Carl Garbedian. Any and all mention of these things, amongst many others, was stripped from the abridged version. The result is a disjointed office novel entirely about Lynn Mason's cancer. This isn't mere omission—it's blatant alteration.

So I say all that to say this. Abridgment is wack. If you read this novel, don't read the abridged version. You'll be missing out on some of this novel's best parts. If you've read this novel and don't have any idea what I'm talking about when I mention the office shooting, then you were probably bamboozled by an abridged copy, and I'm sorry.

Let's put all that mess behind us now...

Then We Came to the End is not an easy novel. For so much of its opening third, it seems like nothing more than ridiculous vignettes of office satire. It's not all that brilliant, or eye-opening, or even coherent. There are some laughs and some eye rolls, but it all feels strangely genuine.

It's easy to give up on Then We Came to the End. It can feel like it's going nowhere, and while there are fun and games in the first half, imagining a whole book with nothing else to offer can be a deterrent. For some readers, giving up would be a mistake. In my opinion, TWCttE is worth the initial investment. I do, however, recognize that this book is definitely not for all readers. Some will find the novel tedious and pointless regardless of its redeeming qualities.

The absurdity that carries the story in the first half gives way to a thread of sadness that grows thicker as the end nears. TWCttE becomes a somewhat dark book, enshrouded in absurdity, but bursting with feeling. Despite whatever annoyances you may have for these characters in the beginning, there's a strong chance that by the end, you'll be rooting for them. It's almost as though Ferris has in this novel created a parallel to the actual office experience. Sure, you can't stand most of your coworkers, but after being in a tight space with them for years, you may begin to sympathize with them (well, some of them, anyway).

From the midpoint forward, Then We Came to the End delivers both captivating and touching moments. Most importantly, through everything, it feels truly genuine. This is particularly true in the novel's conclusion. Then We Came to the End isn't an easy read and it's definitely not a read everyone will enjoy, but it will certainly reward some of those who stick with it—that is, assuming they're reading the unabridged novel.

Nah.

Soo. I read this as part of the 2015 challenge that compelled me to read an author I knew nothing about - and also because I got a great price due to a promotion by Little Brown and company. The story was interesting - an advertising agency that is falling apart in 99 or so - and portrays life in an office in an accurate, albeit sad, way.
The thing is that it was a bit irregular for me: there were parts I really loved, in which characters seemed to become people I almost could say hi to by the coffee machine. And there were others during which I just sneered at them and felt like saying “grow up already”. All in all, if it was his first book, it may be promising. I haven't checked.

I truly wanted to like this more than I did. After reading some positive reviews, I was fully prepared to like it. It had the feel of a blind date for me; several friends swore to me I'd just love it! They sold me on our commonalities (it takes place in an office with catty co-workers, and hey YOU work in an office with no shortage of catty co-workers!). Smart without being pretentious, they told me. Very popular and highly thought of, they added.

First impressions were good. There was some good conversation and laughter. This one's quirky, I thought to myself. I could see myself spending some time with this one! But what seemed so promising in the beginning turned dull. I lost interest in the conversation....I found myself disappointed by the shallowness, the talk of all the meetings in offices that eventually reeked with sameness. By the time the characters showed some believable development, I was too bored to care.

It wasn't horrible, mind you. There was the occasional witty dialogue. A well-placed word or two. I may actually give the author another chance. But in the end with this one, I was indifferent.

I felt compelled to write a brief review of this book having seen one who hated it. I read it a while ago and don't have it on hand at the moment but I do remember the basic plot and I thought it was great and inventive way to depict our modern cubicle lives and it really captured the anomie the pervades office jobs were we are cogs in the great machine, plus it is funny as hell. Give it a try & you won't regret it!

Is it too much to ask to have a great novel set in the cubicle farms I'm so familiar with? Maybe it's just too difficult to mine that otherwise dreary setting. Most seem immediately dated and overplayed like Aeron chairs and Segways. Maybe in a hundred years time they'll seem more relevant in a Dickensonian way.

Ferris doesn't exactly start strong with the use of the first person plural which loops in on itself at the end. It's distancing and jarring but maybe that's the point. I've read reviews that damn the whole story as obviously the product of a writer's workshop. It's just too clever by half. The middle section really clicked for me but then I'm just falling for the metaphor and enjoying at how it hints at a greater subtext.

See, now I'm talking like some writer workshop douche offering up my sincere meaning criticisms. OK read, still waiting for the great office novel.

Second reading: I'm feeling that achy-love feeling that comes when you've turned the last page of a really good book. What really struck me this time around was the quality of the writing, how everything is so well said and purposeful and just right. It's something that I notice a lot more as I get older, an author's use of language and style, and I have no tolerance for flabby meandering writing. Reader, this book is sharp and on point. Highly recommend.

First reading: Feels kind of like the movie “Office Space”, but better. Seriously.

The book starts off less like a novel and more like a collection of great anecdotes your friend is sharing during happy hour. This was a little unexpected for me, but it only took about a chapter to get into the flow. About halfway through the story structure becomes more linear and plot-focused.

I have to share the following passage because my office just went through the exact same thing with our second floor, and the author totally nailed the feeling:
“[Floor:] Fifty-nine was a ghost town. We needed to gather up the payroll staff still occupying a quarter of that floor and find room for them among the rest of us and close down fifty-nine, seal it off like a contamination site. Odds were we were contractually bound to pay rent on that floor through the year, shelling out cash we didn't have for real estate we didn't need. But who knows - maybe we were keeping those abandoned cubicles and offices in hopes of a turnaround. It wasn't always about ledger work at the corporate level. Sometimes, like with real people, it was about faith, hope, and delusion.”

Life in the office, when things are good and as things grow worse. The stories pour out from the collective voices of the office personnel, dark, light, deep, insignificant, but always out of control. Never feels soap opera-ish, despite the growing despair of the staff facing layoffs and benefit cuts.

A book about cubicle life isn't so fun when you spend your work hours in a cubicle. It was like coming home and reliving my day in print.