Joshua Ferris
I finally get around to reading my first straightforward novel in a while, and it happens to be one that's narrated in the first person plural ("we"). I suppose this just goes to show that each book is new, exciting, and different from the rest, which is reflected perfectly in this refreshing, lighthearted book about the day-to-day drudgery of office life. Despite some plotting missteps and my blissful ignorance about the subject matter, Joshua Ferris appears to have hit the nail squarely on the head in this chronoicle of not-quite-white-collar office humor. His most daring choice, the use of the first person plural for the main narrative voice, is entirely and completely appropriate and fits the story perfectly, setting its tone as a kind of collective manifesto. Ferris balances sweeping pronouncements with character-centered stories, and though the book's first section makes readers a bit weary, the rest of the book is easy to follow and reconstructs stories in an omniscient first person plural that allows for sentence variation and readability. A mid-section told in third person present tense feels a bit out of place but provides a nice break from the main story and is connected to the bigger picture by novel's end.
What is most striking about Ferris's choice of narrator(s) is how well and how seamlessly he moves from generalizations to specific stories- a group gathers at a water cooler and is regaled by a tale that itself comes into sharp third-person focus. One by one, the members of the office group are singled out and characterized while maintaining a collective persona that makes them, and their environment, what it is. This effect, however, does take some time to flourish, and the beginning of the book feels muddled and fails to immediately establish characters or a general timeline. Events are related only to have the story revert for much of the book; though the anecdotes that make up the core of the book need not happen sequentially, there is too much hopping around in the beginning and it takes some time for the reader to become comfortable with the environment. This is a shame, because Ferris has clearly put a lot of thought and careful construction into his characters, all of whom embody some cliches but defy complete stereotyping. By not shying away from cliche but not succumbing entirely to it, Ferris creates a realistic office environment; we know people like these people, personalities just shy of boring but with a splash of unique flavor that makes them memorable. What's remarkable is that these characters are so fleshed out and so realistic when they are all supporting characters in a non-serial ensemble piece, and despite this loose feel the storyline becomes more coherent as the book goes on and the sitcom begins to settle down into a thought-provoking drama.
Ferris's ability to mix the stereotypical and the unique in his characters reflects the somewhat dual nature of Then We Came to the End. Blurbs compare it to Catch-22, and rightly so as it has its moments of perfectly tuned cynicism. It is, however, also a moving testament to our innate need to socialize and form rules of engagement with the casts of our everyday lives. By the end of the book, the characters are in vastly different places and the reader is emotionally connected to them despite the sometimes childish nature of their pranks and idle chatter. The characters that populate this unnamed Chicago advertising agency are the same that populate offices and other institutions across the country and perhaps the world. Then We Came to the End reflects a very specific brand of white-collar upper-class culture but also has a vibrant undercurrent that asks readers to reconsider their own daily interactions. The book is hilarious but carries with it moments of deep sentiment that do not overwhelm its lighthearted tone but which do give the thoughtful reader a moment's pause. Then We Came to the End is much more than it first appears to be and cuts much deeper than an amateur office farce, but the joy of reading it is that Ferris allows these themes to build naturally and does not force them down readers' throats. We come to the end, and, like Ferris's separated former co-workers, we see simply what has been there all along.
Grade: A-
What is most striking about Ferris's choice of narrator(s) is how well and how seamlessly he moves from generalizations to specific stories- a group gathers at a water cooler and is regaled by a tale that itself comes into sharp third-person focus. One by one, the members of the office group are singled out and characterized while maintaining a collective persona that makes them, and their environment, what it is. This effect, however, does take some time to flourish, and the beginning of the book feels muddled and fails to immediately establish characters or a general timeline. Events are related only to have the story revert for much of the book; though the anecdotes that make up the core of the book need not happen sequentially, there is too much hopping around in the beginning and it takes some time for the reader to become comfortable with the environment. This is a shame, because Ferris has clearly put a lot of thought and careful construction into his characters, all of whom embody some cliches but defy complete stereotyping. By not shying away from cliche but not succumbing entirely to it, Ferris creates a realistic office environment; we know people like these people, personalities just shy of boring but with a splash of unique flavor that makes them memorable. What's remarkable is that these characters are so fleshed out and so realistic when they are all supporting characters in a non-serial ensemble piece, and despite this loose feel the storyline becomes more coherent as the book goes on and the sitcom begins to settle down into a thought-provoking drama.
Ferris's ability to mix the stereotypical and the unique in his characters reflects the somewhat dual nature of Then We Came to the End. Blurbs compare it to Catch-22, and rightly so as it has its moments of perfectly tuned cynicism. It is, however, also a moving testament to our innate need to socialize and form rules of engagement with the casts of our everyday lives. By the end of the book, the characters are in vastly different places and the reader is emotionally connected to them despite the sometimes childish nature of their pranks and idle chatter. The characters that populate this unnamed Chicago advertising agency are the same that populate offices and other institutions across the country and perhaps the world. Then We Came to the End reflects a very specific brand of white-collar upper-class culture but also has a vibrant undercurrent that asks readers to reconsider their own daily interactions. The book is hilarious but carries with it moments of deep sentiment that do not overwhelm its lighthearted tone but which do give the thoughtful reader a moment's pause. Then We Came to the End is much more than it first appears to be and cuts much deeper than an amateur office farce, but the joy of reading it is that Ferris allows these themes to build naturally and does not force them down readers' throats. We come to the end, and, like Ferris's separated former co-workers, we see simply what has been there all along.
Grade: A-
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