Did you notice right away that Then We Came to the End is written in the first person plural? It’s we, not I. Does this change your impressions of the book at all? Why do you think Joshua Ferris did this? Do you like this storytelling perspective?
Other books that are narrated from this point of view are The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, and Our Kind by Kate Walbert. Laura Miller has an interesting take on it in her NYT piece “The Last Word: We, the Characters”:
“All this makes the first-person-plural narrator both a risky proposition and a striking effect, if a writer can pull it off.”
How well does Ferris pull it off?
Categories: fiction
Tagged: book discussion, books, Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End
Read Then We Came to the End with me during the month of September! Joshua Ferris’ novel is a satirical look at office life, the place where we probably spend more time than anywhere else, with people we see more than anyone else. As this particular office faces layoffs and closure, Ferris chronicles it all as seen through the eyes of the group, “through gossip, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks.”
It’s been called “Hilarious in a Catch-22 way” by Stephen King, “expansive, great-hearted, and acidly funny” by James Poniewozik in the NYTBR, and “wickely funny and painfully real” by Redbook.
Read the first chapter of this 2007 National Book Award finalist here. There’s also a book trailer. If you’re a fan of “The Office,” read this one with me and give this book a try…
Categories: fiction
Tagged: book discussion, books, Joshua Ferris, The Office, Then We Came to the End
