Then We Came to the End: A Novel
by Joshua Ferris
List Price:
Our Price: $3.69
You Save: $10.30 (74%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.25 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Joshua FerrisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-26
ISBN: 031601639X
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Then We Came to the End: A Novel
Book Review: I prefer to watch jelly set.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was billed as "A terrific first novel....Awfully funny." This should have read "Disappointing last novel....Awful".
It wasn't that I lost the will to live as I am still here just that I did not find that it made me even smile, let alone laugh.
My apologies to the author, after all he did write in good English - or should that be American and tied together many strands of office life and the social activity as he envisaged it and in a way that I would struggle to do.
But I feel very let down by the promise of a laugh or two and the actual lack of anything like this happening at least up to page 62. This is where I decided to call a halt as nothing had caused my chuckle muscles even to twitch.
I have experience of watching paint dry being a decorator and do declare this a rewarding activity compared to reading 'Then we came to the end'.
Comedy can be a way of confronting harsh or difficult facts of life and learning not to take ourselves so seriously. The text in this book lacks life in most part and when there is a spark of a basic truth it is sad and hopeless. Being funny about what ails us can help us to put it in perspective and when we go through those trials we can remember the joke in it all.
Remember the final scene in the film 'Life of Brian' - made by the Monty Python people - where the condemned sing 'Always look on the bright side of life' while nailed to their crosses. How many millions of people know that song and whistle and sing along with it when it is played?
Joshua, I apologise again as you are a fellow human being with all the strengths and frailties same as me but I couldn't get past page 62. Please try writing another novel but perhaps a murder mystery or other serious drama. You might find some funny bits appearing in it even if they aren't meant to be.
Regards
Richard Phillips
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Office-Lit
Then We Came to the End: A Novelby Joshua Ferris
Back Bay Books; Published: 2008-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Price in other shops:
Personal Days: A Novelby Ed Park
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2008-05-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.90
Price in other shops:
One Night at the Call Center: A Novelby Chetan Bhagat
Ballantine Books; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.35
Price in other shops:
HANDLE TiMEby LiNCOLN PARK
4465 PReSS; Published: 2008-05-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.82
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)by Aravind Adiga
Free Press; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Lush Life: A Novelby Richard Price
Picador; Published: 2009-03-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.02
Price in other shops:
The Gathering (Man Booker Prize)by Anne Enright
Grove Press, Black Cat; Published: 2007-09-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Courtby Jeffrey Toobin
Doubleday; Published: 2007-09-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.20
Price in other shops:
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depressionby Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Bantam; Published: 2007-05-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.17
Price in other shops:
Man Gone Down: A Novelby Michael Thomas
Grove Press, Black Cat; Published: 2006-12-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.37
Price in other shops:
Tree of Smoke: A Novelby Denis Johnson
Picador; Published: 2008-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.13
Price in other shops:
The Savage Detectives: A Novelby Roberto Bolano
Picador; Published: 2008-03-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
Out Stealing Horses: A Novelby Per Petterson
Picador; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waoby Junot D?az
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2008-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.84
Price in other shops: