I’ve finally figured out how to speed up my reading — sit on a plane for nine and ten hour stretches. I’m not sure how long the DJ’s commute is on the number so-and-so bus every morning, but I think I now see the secret to his success.
After finishing Dreaming of Gwen Stefani on my trip to Europe and posting on it from other parts of the world, I also managed to get through Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris, at the tail-end of my trip. As I’ve mentioned in prior commentary, I was extremely excited about this book, given its overlap with my occupation as an advertising lawyer.
The book takes place at an unnamed advertising agency in Chicago following the bursting of the internet bubble and the scrambling by the agency for new business and the quest for job security within the agency. Ferris uses the book to describe a wide cast of characters at the agency, from the partner that the main characters work for, to her deputy, to all of the gossip-mongering underlings that work for them. As a group, they demonstrate an interesting blend of both mob mentality and individuality, with each character seeming to possess at least one quirk or idiosyncracy that demands attention.
I have to admit that the story didn’t resonate that much with me; I can’t say whether that’s because I never actually get to see the inner workings of the agencies that I work with (but they’re in fact like the agency in this book), or if instead it’s because this book is a fantastical account with no connection to reality. That’s not finger-pointing; it’s simply that I expected the book to parallel experiences I’ve had, but it didn’t. Don’t blame Ferris, but don’t blame me, either.
An interesting aspect of Ferris’s writing style in the book (and I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know if it’s a commonly-used technique) is that the story toggles back and forth rather seamlessly between a first-hand account by the narrator to a third-person telling of the story (i.e., of events at which the narrator was not present). And the narrator is apparently an employee at the agency, but we know absolutely nothing about her (I think it’s a female, anyway, based on a couple of remarks); this is odd given the exploration of all of the other characters’ personalities.
Overall, I think the book represents an exploration of how people cope with insecurities in their worklife and their personal life, and how those two lives are inextricably intertwined. The stress that these characters face due to layoffs at the agency, office politics, domestic strife, and the dynamic created when “teammates” are competing with one another, seems to surface and sensationalize their most bizarre internal traits, creating an interesting journey for the reader. It’s not an “Office”-style kneeslapper by any stretch, but it’s a pretty quick read that kept me engaged.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:22 am
I’m blaming Don Imus.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Shaft” Welcome back to the US of A. My daily travel time is less than 9 hours, but it slowly adds up.
I have heard some great things about this book. One of the things that I had heard that was strange about it was that passages were written in the second person plural - “we” - which is unusual. Maybe it was appropriate for the story of a group?
April 11th, 2007 at 8:30 am
DJ — That’s what I had tried to explain in post, although not very eloquently. Sometimes the narrator uses “we”, while at other times it’s a narrative from a third person recounting events at which the “second person” wasn’t present. It’s kind of weird. But not necessarily in a bad way. The strangest thing to me, as I tried to note, was that the second person narrator (if that’s what you call her) talks like she’s right in the midst of all of these crazies, but she never talks about anything that happened to her personally or any of her traits.