February 28, 2007

Working It Out

“Then We Came to the End,” by Joshua Ferris

Ah, the workplace.

You spend most of your waking hours there, so the thought of reading a book about it might strike you as redundant. (Um, kind of like all the meetings you attended last week.)

But think outside the box and pick up Then We Came to the End, the debut novel by Joshua Ferris about the life and times of a Chicago ad agency.

In wry, deadpan prose, Ferris cleverly illuminates all the hilarity, humiliation, and pathos that office culture has to offer — from the never-ending quest to find a decent desk chair to how we endure forced intimacy with people in whose company we’d otherwise never be caught dead.

Then We Came to the End shows how the dullest place on earth is also the site of our deepest longings, bitterest enmities, and noblest impulses. Also, it’s way funny.

So funny, you may have to call in sick to stay home and finish it.

Available online at amazon.com or your local bookstore.