Then We Came to the End

By: Joshua Ferris

Narrated by: Deanna Hurst

An astounding debut novel, wickedly funny and big-hearted, about life in the office, signals the arrival of a gloriously talented new writer.

No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best.

The characters in Then We Came to an End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. As one colleague after another is seen "walking Spanish down the hall" (office shorthand for being fired), the survivors obsessively parse their bosses' decisions - when they're not competing for the best office furniture left behind or trying to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work".

Joshua Ferris has a demon's eye for the details and emotions that make up our lives, and he has written a hilarious and moving novel about the strange selves we become when we walk through the office doors each day.

©2007 Joshua Ferris (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Heartfelt and delivered in solemn deadpan. It may even be, in its own modest way, a great American novel." (Darcy Cosper, Los Angeles Times)

"Wildly funny....At once delightfully freakish and entirely credible, Ferris' cast makes a real impression." ( Publishers Weekly)

"It's hilarious in a Catch-22 way, but with an undercurrent of sadness that works counterpoint to all the absurdity." (Stephen King)

The Title Is An Aspirational Goal

Having heard good things about this book and the author's second I picked this up. While there was one LOL moment and a few where I chucked to myself it is by and large not very funny nor interesting. Honestly, the best thing I have to say about it is that it is quite short so I actually finished it instead of giving up.

Abridged Reading

We were eager to read this, after listening together to Joshua Ferris being interviewed on the NYT book review podcast, so we downloaded the Audible version and enjoyed it quite a lot. Between listening sessions we talked about the characters and shared our thoughts about the book's narrators. We did not realize until it was over that we were listening to an abridged version. As a rule, we don't read (or listen to) abridgements. So we don't feel qualified to review the book when we're really only read part of it! However, it is clever and entertaining and any former or current cube-dwellers will almost certainly find much to appreciate. The composite narrator (much of the story is told from the perspective of "us") feels as fresh and novel as the first time we read Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City" 23 years ago. We only wish the Audible version were not an abridgement. We felt, in the end, as if someone were missing.

WARNING this is abridged

This is an abridged version of a great piece of work that’s stripped down so much as to be pointless. There is at least some of the wit left in but it’s harsh without the rest

Good, maybe not great

Interesting book. In the beginning you think it is just going to be a knock-off of The Office. It turns out to be more. The author takes an interesting and generally entertaining look at the workforce. He takes it from the perspective of a narrator within the office for most of the book.

The book has some excellent humor but can drag at a few points. It ends well and you will be happy you read it.

As for the audio book, I listened to most of it and read the book itself. The items removed from the audio book are questionable at best. At least two key stories from the book were deleted from the audio book.

Unsatisfying

After hearing good things about this book I was VERY disappointed. It was filled with the natterings of clueless office people and a long and uninteresting first person commentary by a work-obsessed lonely woman facing a mastectomy.

Didn't realize it was abridged

What would have made Then We Came to the End better?

I guess it's my own mistake for not paying enough attention when buying the audiobook, but I didnt realize this was an abridged book until I went to see the reviews from other readers. Feel like I've wasted this credit now. I wanted to read other people's comments to see how they had reacted to the annoying first person plural narrative. I like to know who the storyteller is, so this anonymous "we" didn't really work for me. I recognize that it's a literary method though, and that it's part of what makes the book feel modern.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The narrator does a good job. It's also fast paced and feels very modern and fresh, inventive.

Just ok. Not much happens in this book

This book started off reminding me of Office Space but then nothing very interesting happened

Pointless story

Nothing happens, no one learns anything, Lots of characters complain. Pathetic view of advertising as a profession. But the reader was good.

Abridged version -key moments missing

Bought this to help me finish the book quicker and didn't realize it was an abridged version. explains why it was on sale... Because I was also reading the book, I noticed that one of the key moments in the book was entirely missing from the audio.

SPOILER ALERT: how could you leave out the fact that a key character returns to the office with a gun?! and shoots someone?!!

If you were trying to save time on the audio, there were plenty of other parts that could have been sacrificed in order to leave in the most suspenseful moment in the entire book. SMH

Reader poor on this one

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but had a very hard time getting into it and gave up after an hour or so. Realized that I would have preferred a male reader - more appropriate to the text - and one with more enthusiasm about the project. Will probably give it another chance, because I really wanted to like the book. Also didn't realize was abridged. Like the previous reviewer, I prefer the whole book.