All in a Day's Work (Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris)

Member Name: Puggers

Product:	Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
Date:	26/06/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Veers skillfully between comedy and tragedy; wonderful, well-written characters.

Disadvantages: Erratic pace; while some parts fly by, others drag.

How do you write a book about a group of people getting bored doing something numbingly boring without making the novel itself equally tedious? This is the question Joshua Ferris for the most part overcomes in Then We Came To The End, a witty, perceptive tale of the struggles and successes of those working for a Chicago-based advertising agency.

Billing itself as being about "sitting all morning next to someone you cross the road to avoid at lunch", Ferris' novel opens at the end of the dot-com boom of the late-nineties, with the employees of the unnamed agency confident of their unassailable positions and blasé about their comfortable salaries. Then the redundancies begin. To "walk Spanish", the term is coined - as in 'Just after lunch, Will Sanderson was given half an hour to clear his office before he was walked Spanish down the hall'.

Redundancies lead to paranoia, and paranoia leads to speculation - anyone sitting on a chair that isn't theirs could be next; Tom Mota, recently laid off, is going to come back and exact his retribution; Lynn Mason, one of the partners, has cancer, but won't tell anyone. Ferris manages to create a sense of the unknown-origin rumours and insular office politics that will be familiar to so many readers, and set against the ever-present fear of mass redundancies, brings humour and life out of his characters.

This is, after all, a very funny novel. It's often a slightly black humour, but for the most part it comes from the wonderful cast of characters Ferris has created. Jim Jackers - paranoid, annoys everyone; Benny Shassburger - knows all, always has a story, never appears to be working; Marcia Dwyer - sharp-tongued, abrupt and immediately apologetic; Joe Pope - a rung or two up the ladder, never ruffled, is never any less than a model employee. The interplay between these and the many other characters makes the novel what it is, the squabbling and scheming, the furtive whispering and wild speculation.

One of the most curious and original aspects of the novel is the lack of a central character. Although the story is narrated as if by someone in the room, the references are always to "we" - there is no "I" in the whole book. It's an unusual technique but a very effective one, giving a sense of the mindset of those in the office as a unit, reflecting their shared hopes and fears. The focus of the narrative almost never leaves the agency; we see next to nothing of home lives or interests outside of work, because this book isn't about that. Rather, it's about that considerable portion of our lives that we spend alongside people we don't necessarily like, following orders we don't understand, observing rules and etiquettes without remembering why, and building up this curious micro-culture amongst the cubes, post-its and pot-plants of the office.

The situations the characters find themselves in are absurd and surreal, yet somehow believable - and contrast sweetly with the monotony of meetings and deadlines. The concerns the characters labour over also ring true; as far-fetched as some branches of the storyline might be, at times this could be any workplace.

This isn't a perfect debut novel; although the narrative is skilfully written and immediately absorbing, the book struggles to keep the attention it so easily grabbed. The pace of the story is erratic, and rises and falls dramatically at least twice before pulling itself back together for the excellent finale. The sag right in the middle is a particularly tedious one to push through; Ferris inexplicably shifts the focus of the narration from the "we" of the office to a prolonged chapter dealing with Lynn's struggle (or not) with cancer. Away from the advertising agency and the well-judged cast of characters inhabiting it, Ferris' writing isn't nearly as strong - frankly, in fact, it's dull. Thankfully, normality resumes and the quality of the
storytelling picks up no end.

Another minor issue contributing to a periodically lumpy, awkward plotline is the curious chronology employed. One moment, Tom Mota is "walked Spanish" from the building, the next he is popping up as an workmate in an anecdote as if he were still employed; this happens repeatedly, with several characters. These aren't oversights of the author - rather just the result of interwoven stories told by various characters relating to various times, with a tendency not to mention when they occurred. As such, the story moves around in time all over the place in the first half. This isn't a major issue, and doesn't impair understanding too much (after all, the basic plot is very simple), but it makes for some slightly confusing vignettes.

Then We Came To The End, starting and finishing strongly with an awful lot of good in the middle, is a fine book - and, as a first novel, promises much to come from its talented author. Ferris is adept at creating character and handling dialogue, and manages to extract the inherent humour from everyday absurdities with impressive skill. Though set in Chicago, it speaks of the frustrations and pleasures of workplaces everywhere, and makes for a keenly-observed and often downright hilarious look at the things we do in the name of gainful employment.

Summary: A funny, skillfully-observed look at the things we do when we're supposed to be working.