Then We Came to the End

A Novel

By: Joshua Ferris

Narrated by: Deanna Hurst

This wickedly funny, big-hearted novel about life in the office signals the arrival of a gloriously talented writer.

The characters in Then We Came to the End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."

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.

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

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.

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.