Then We Came to the End

Starred review from January 8, 2007
In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the '90s boom. Indignation rises over the rightful owner of a particularly coveted chair ("We felt deceived"). Gonzo e-mailer Tom Mota quotes Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the midst of his tirades, desperately trying to retain a shred of integrity at a job that requires a ruthless attention to what will make people buy things. Jealousy toward the aloof and "inscrutable" middle manager Joe Pope spins out of control. Copywriter Chris Yop secretly returns to the office after he's laid off to prove his worth. Rumors that supervisor Lynn Mason has breast cancer inspire blood lust, remorse, compassion. Ferris has the downward-spiraling office down cold, and his use of the narrative "we" brilliantly conveys the collective fear, pettiness, idiocy and also humanity of high-level office drones as anxiety rises to a fever pitch. Only once does Ferris shift from the first person plural (for an extended fugue on Lynn's realization that she may be ill), and the perspective feels natural throughout. At once delightfully freakish and entirely credible, Ferris's cast makes a real impression.

January 1, 2007
A debut novel from an author whose short fiction has appeared in the "Iowa Review, Best New American Voices 2005", and "Prairie Schooner", this work depicts the offices and cubicles of a Chicago advertising agency located on the Magnificent Mile. The employees are quirky, neurotic, and self-involved, but the radical laws of the workplace force them together, and they rely on one another more than they care to admit. Through the anxiety and animosity of layoffs, missing chairs, and office pranks, their collective life story is always at the forefront of the narrative, evoking both great delight and emotional pain as we watch each character come to his or her own end. Ferris repeatedly pulls us in by capturing multiple conversations at once and methodically expanding the space between words with humorous, thoughtful insight to highlight details in those ordinary moments. Regardless of vocation, you know these people, and, what's worse, you see yourself in them. With so many books on office life, it's nice to see someone add fresh spark and originality to the subject. Nick Hornby praised this as "a terrific first novel," foreshadowing a positive public reception. Recommended for all public libraries.Stephen Morrow, Columbus, OH

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 31, 2008
Among many other reasons, Ferris's debut novel was acclaimed for its unusual point of view: the collective "we." The harried denizens of a Chicago advertising firm form a unified narrator, railing against the boredom of the American white-collar job and the dwindling of their opportunities at the company in the post-Internet bust. Reading a book with such tricky narration is a complex task, and Deanna Hurst, while game, is not quite up to the task. Hurst reads flatly, with little sense of the engaging rhythms of Ferris's comic prose. This abridged version of Ferris's novel often feels heavier, and longer, than the wonderfully light-footed original. Hurst just doesn't quite get the joke. Simultaneous release with the Back Bay Books paperback (Reviews, Jan. 8, 2007).