The thing about writing a book in the first-person plural is that it’s well-nigh impossible to get everything happening in ‘immediate scene.’ Which is why most of the narrative in Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End, relies on its fulsome cast of characters to relate it in the third person singular. The cast - or chorus as you might call them (except strictly speaking they’re not a chorus because they're all named) - are as follows; Amber, Andy, Benny, Brizz, Carl, Chris, Dan, Don, Doug, Ernie, Genevieve, Hank, Janine, Jim, Joe, Karen, Larry, Lynn, Marcia, Mike, Paulette, Reiser, Roland, Sandy, and Tom; those are the staff at the advertising agency. There’re also Carter, Heidi, Michael, and Seth, who put in an appearance at the end when most of the characters enjoy a reunion in a wine bar ‘five years later’. There are also ‘The Building Guy’, Becky the baby, Brizz’s brother Frank (aka Bizarro Brizz) Martin, Marylin, and the mysterious Brian Bayer. I say ‘most’ of the characters assemble for a reunion – that is all except one, plus the three who have died, and to find out who these are and how and why, you will have to come right to the end.
There are more characters than in Romeo & Juliet – which is quite possibly why the families in that play get a mention. There are more characters than in a Wagner opera, and in some ways the narrative is is both Shakespeare and Wagner. I almost forgot Ralph - that’s Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and transcendentalist. He’s not one of the cast, but his philosophy - that you don’t need to search for the truth because it will reveal itself intuitively through nature - is ever present.
‘Funny,’ ‘hilarious’, ‘entertaining,’ the epithets from the usual suspects are misleading and they should examine their motives for saying so. The beauty of being an amateur reviewer on Amazon is that one has no axe to grind.. I can almost guarantee you will laugh, but the novel is sad, painful, wistful. There is cancer, the abduction and murder of a child, the celebration of dullness and uniformity, physical and mental breakdowns, eccentricity and despair. There are multiple lay-offs (described as 'being made to walk Spanish down the hall'). There are multiple swivel chairs with concealed serial numbers, multiple floors with highly static carpets, and 'a circuitous blueprint of cubicle clusters'. It’s Wagnerian, it’s Shakespearian, and it’s experienced by ‘you and me.’
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Top reviews from other countries
dantes22
Brillant, drôle : un livre exceptionnel
Reviewed in France on 10 December 2012Cai Yixin Jeremy
Then We Came To The End
Reviewed in the United States on 17 January 2010
