book review #1: then we came to the end by joshua ferris

There’s a catharsis that occurs when common experience unearths from a new book, when the shoot of that new plant pokes its green hand above the soil and reaches high past its moss mat feeling about for tenable growth. We find in that shoot’s flight fragments of familiarity: a common conflict, emotion, situation. It resembles for us a collective sigh, when all of humanity takes one deep breath in, one long breath out. “We are the same,” that breath seems to say. Our pettiness, our dreams, each false sense of individuality, each real nugget of uniqueness, dissatisfaction with the moment, sudden awakenings, debts, gluttony, temptations, foul human thoughts. The same.

Such experience plumps out the pages of Joshua Ferris’ debut novel, Then We Came to the End (published 2007), which follows a crew of employees at an advertising agency during the 1990s. The cast of characters runs the gamut, from the unhinged atheist prankster to the hardened female executive. We follow them as they move in and out of advertising projects, worrying each day about the tenuousness of their employment.

There are a few things that distinguish this book (aside from the gold “National Book Award” stamp in the upper right corner). First, humor. It’s not often a novel hits on various types of humor, but TWCTTE hits on slapstick, exaggeration, witty banter, absurdity, whimsy, blunder, to name just a few. Take for example the ridiculousness of the advertising projects they’re assigned: make breast cancer funny to breast cancer victims; make buying this type of printer ink heroic. Or a few scenes involving the copy machine: Tom Mota caught by his supervisor printing pornographic materials; Hank Neary photocopying books because the printouts can be easily disguised as work material; Chris Yop copying his resume without shame the day after he has been fired. Ferris is able to put his cast in outrageous circumstances and poke fun at these characters without stripping them completely of their amiability.

Second, Ferris uses a unique point-of-view called the collective “we.” In an interview published at the end of the paperback version of the novel, Ferris says: “My father took a great risk around the time he turned fifty by starting his own company. It was small at first; he was his only employee. Yet his message machine told callers that “we” weren’t in right now...” This is where the idea originated for Ferris’ collective “we” point-of-view. It’s an effective choice for the novel, to say the least. We move in and out of scenes, unsure which of the crew the “we” represents at any given time, galloping from cubicle to cubicle for gossip or bitch sessions or fights or “private” conversations. It affords Ferris the opportunity to explore the whole of the organization, down to the security guard, without need to switch point-of-view. In addition to the freedom it affords Ferris, the collective “we” is simply fun to read. And for readers with experience in an office environment, it’s laughably familiar.

Third, structure. Sandwiched between two “we” sections, the point-of-view pulls in close on one character and switches to third person. Ferris calls this section the “book’s emotional heart,” the organ of the novel’s body that gives it life. While much of the “we” sections seem dangerously devoid of conscience, integrity and emotion, the heart of the novel lays the pavement that leads to moral recognition and redemption for the remainder of the novel. It was a brilliant choice on Ferris’ part and an anchor weighting the text down.

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