books (Then We Came To The End)
by Joshua Ferris
This novel is so eerily reminiscent of Don Delillo that I am hard-pressed to believe that Don Delillo isn't writing funnier novels under a pseudonym. The title of the book is actually a direct crib from Delillo's first novel (Americana) and the plotting and style are drawn from the same mold. One would think that if this isn't Delillo writing under a fake name, then the actual author keeps a copy of Delillo's work open next to his laptop for inspiration as he types.
This book is so good that I can't even begin to describe it.
Trish read this a while ago and suggested it to me at the time. I had so many
books on my plate then I sort of ignored the recommendation. But then the book got shortlisted as a National Book Award nominee, so I pushed it ahead of the pile. It's wonderful. I loved it and I think I actually liked it more than Trish did.
The book takes place at the end of the 1990's. The nation is undergoing severe economic drag and companies all over the world are laying off employees right and left. In Chicago, the employees of a once-prosperous advertising firm wait quietly, fearing that they might be the next to go. They keep busy in order to look busy so that they can justify their positions. And that's it. That's the plot.
Of course, other things happen. The agency is asked to design a pro-bono ad campaign for a breast cancer organization that appears to be nonexistant. Wagers are placed on who will be die this year. One employee must decide what to do with a sixty-foot totem pole bequeathed to him in a will. Another attempts to convince the co-worker he is having an affair with to have an abortion, thus saving his marriage. Another amuses himself by spending a day speaking only in quotes from The Godfather. They all fear that Tom Mota, recently let-go and prone to outbursts, might come back to work and kill them all.
Everything about this novel works. It's funny and heartbreaking and all too real. Anyone who has worked in corporate America can relate to the doldrums this book describes. To further this, the author chose to present it in the first-person plural tense, a technique that gets tedious in other novels, but works well here, leaving the reader with an inclusive feeling that carries them along. This technique works especially well after a later chapter where the tense shifts, presenting a startling portrait of how to cope with illness, told strictly from one character's point of view. The shift is jarring. It almost kicks you in the head.
I say this all the time, but: This is the best novel I've read all year. I'm rooting for this wildly-talented new author to go home with a National Book Award to his credit.
This novel is so eerily reminiscent of Don Delillo that I am hard-pressed to believe that Don Delillo isn't writing funnier novels under a pseudonym. The title of the book is actually a direct crib from Delillo's first novel (Americana) and the plotting and style are drawn from the same mold. One would think that if this isn't Delillo writing under a fake name, then the actual author keeps a copy of Delillo's work open next to his laptop for inspiration as he types.
This book is so good that I can't even begin to describe it.
Trish read this a while ago and suggested it to me at the time. I had so many
books on my plate then I sort of ignored the recommendation. But then the book got shortlisted as a National Book Award nominee, so I pushed it ahead of the pile. It's wonderful. I loved it and I think I actually liked it more than Trish did.
The book takes place at the end of the 1990's. The nation is undergoing severe economic drag and companies all over the world are laying off employees right and left. In Chicago, the employees of a once-prosperous advertising firm wait quietly, fearing that they might be the next to go. They keep busy in order to look busy so that they can justify their positions. And that's it. That's the plot.
Of course, other things happen. The agency is asked to design a pro-bono ad campaign for a breast cancer organization that appears to be nonexistant. Wagers are placed on who will be die this year. One employee must decide what to do with a sixty-foot totem pole bequeathed to him in a will. Another attempts to convince the co-worker he is having an affair with to have an abortion, thus saving his marriage. Another amuses himself by spending a day speaking only in quotes from The Godfather. They all fear that Tom Mota, recently let-go and prone to outbursts, might come back to work and kill them all.
Everything about this novel works. It's funny and heartbreaking and all too real. Anyone who has worked in corporate America can relate to the doldrums this book describes. To further this, the author chose to present it in the first-person plural tense, a technique that gets tedious in other novels, but works well here, leaving the reader with an inclusive feeling that carries them along. This technique works especially well after a later chapter where the tense shifts, presenting a startling portrait of how to cope with illness, told strictly from one character's point of view. The shift is jarring. It almost kicks you in the head.
I say this all the time, but: This is the best novel I've read all year. I'm rooting for this wildly-talented new author to go home with a National Book Award to his credit.