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 Almost . . . A noble first effort of capturing Joseph Heller Jan 02, 2009
One of my all-time favorite books is Something Happened by Joseph Heller.Something Happened That book did a phenomenal job of exploiting the absurd/hilarious tragedy that life is. I have longed for another book that mined the same territory successfully. Joshua Ferris goes very far in capturing that world. The first two thirds of this book enthralled me. But the last quarter (I know the fractions don't quite add up) flagged. I appreciate how hard it is to maintain the manic energy that this sort of writing involves. And to say that it doesn't rise to the level of the masterpiece of the genre, Something Happened, is perhaps an unfair criticism. (Joseph Heller, after all, is fairly comparable to Kafka.)
But as dazzling as much of this book is, I thought it important to share my view that the author ultimately stumbled. I certainly look forward to subsequent efforts by Ferris. But for those who were taken with this book, I strongly urge you to start with the Heller book.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 I wish this book would come to the end... Dec 29, 2008
I'm 200 pages into this and am utterly bored. The only reason I've gotten this far is that this is an easy read. Yes I work in an office and yes and I can relate to a lot of the office stuff (free food, long after noons, looking busy instead of finding more work to do when you just dont feel like working)...but so what?
The characters are names only - not people. One has cancer. Jimmy cracked corn...
The book jacket tells me Stephen King called this 'hilarious.' I'd like him to tell me what part is hilarious, because I havent found it yet.
I fell for this due to Amazon's hype. The story is boring. The writing is uninteresting and not clever.
I'm going to throw this one out when I'm done with it instead of letting it waste space on my shelf.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 This is one annoying book! Dec 23, 2008
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.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 A book for this time Dec 11, 2008
No two offices are the same, but this book rings true for anyone who has worked for a company about to go under. Then We Came to the End captures the fear, culture and inside politics of the modern American workplace.
The book isn't as funny as the jacket suggests, however it has a contemporary feel that slowly brings the characters to life. Critiques of the book accurately point out that it starts out at a slow pace, but after the first hundred pages you will find yourself drawn to the deep and relatable character profiles. I love how this book ends
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
best fiction book I've read in years Dec 11, 2008
A fantastic debut novel from Joshua Ferris about a Chicago marketing firm's employees. Ferris delves in to their work lives with intimate detail on their fears of being laid off, their attitudes towards each other, and how their personal lives affect their work lives. Though many of the characters face depressing situations, the novel is very funny and witty, full of truth about workplaces- how coworkers tease and pull pranks on each other, workplace gossip, and office pariahs. Each chapter could stand alone as its own story detailing the various going-ons in the office, such as the stealing of each other's desk chairs, the rumors surrounding their mysterious boss, and bizarre reactions from the laid off employees.
I breezed through this book, each chapter, though about the mundane and ordinary, seems full of excitement and hilarity. Easily the best book I have read in years.
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