Books: Ferris’ office tale a page-turner

“Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris is part the movie “Office Space,” part the sitcom “The Office” and all a little too close to home for many office workers, including myself. Ferris is dead-on with his retelling of office life, from the gossips to the style maven, from the strange older man to the arm’s-length boss.

This book could be taken as a fly-on-the-wall writing exercise, as Ferris places his readers right in the middle of the action for the entire book. Told in the omnipresent “we” voice, the reader feels as if he could be the narrator, or one of the office workers mentioned or perhaps an office worker who hovers in the background and escapes the other workers’ scathing judgments.

As witnessed in many offices, afternoons are spent trying not to fall asleep after lunch. Also, you don’t want to get too much work done and make your fellow co-workers look lazy, but you also don’t want to appear to be a slacker.

Ferris’ office gets turned on its head when the downsizing begins. No one wants to make the dreaded escorted walk to the elevator with only a file-size cardboard box filled with your personal belongings as evidence that you did indeed work there.

No one wants to be the one to make uncomfortable banter with the just-laid-off co-worker at the bar after work where everyone gathers to say goodbye to the latest downsizing victim.

And no one wants to see what will happen when the wrong person gets laid off on the wrong day.

“Then We Came to the End” is an engaging page-turner of a book that is sure to entertain anyone who has ever held, not just an office job, but ANY job. Its biting wit and sarcastic observation might just make you grateful for the office you currently work in.