When I started reading “Then We Came to the End,” by Joshua Ferris, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was part of the very small genre of “workplace fiction” – would it be a literary version of “The Office”?? It turns out that while some aspects of the book are very funny (my favorite section: one character decides that for an entire day, he will respond to his coworkers only with quotes from “The Godfather”), there is also an unexpectedly poignant story at the heart of the novel. The author also pulls off the notable feat of telling the story in the collective second person.
I have always thought that people in my office were a little crazy – almost as crazy as the people in this book, but not quite. (No one in my office has gotten fired, then dressed up as a clown and returned with a paintball gun to exact revenge – not yet, anyway.) Perhaps I should start taking notes at the office – someday I could create another addition to the workplace genre...
3 comments:
The collective second person? Really? Can you quote an example? I'm having trouble imagining a whole book like that.
Yeah, it is pretty bizarre. You get used to it quickly though. Here are the opening lines of the book, to give you an idea:
"We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at 10:15. Most of us liked everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything."
And it goes on. The group basically serves as an omniscient narrator, telling stories about various individuals. I don't think I've read anything else quite like it.
Actually what I should have said was "collective first person," not second... that would be EXTREMELY bizarre.
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