Then We Came to the End

Then We Came to the End

First US edition with image of Post-it notes
Author	Joshua Ferris
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date	March 1, 2007
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	400 pp (HB 1st edition)
ISBN	978-0-316-01638-4
OCLC	62679893
Dewey Decimal	813/.6 22
LC Class	PS3606.E774 T47 2007

Then We Came to the End is the first novel by Joshua Ferris. It was released by Little, Brown and Company on March 1, 2007. A satire of the American workplace, it is similar in tone to Don DeLillo's Americana, even borrowing DeLillo's first line for its title.

It takes place in a Chicago advertising agency that is experiencing a downturn at the end of the 1990s Internet boom. Ferris employs a first-person-plural narrative.

Critical reaction

The book was greeted with positive reviews from GQ , ^[1] The New York Times , ^[2] The New Yorker , ^[3] Esquire , ^[4] and Slate . ^[5] The book was named one of the Best Books of 2007 by The New York Times . ^[6] On Metacritic, the book received a 82 out of 100 based on 18 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ^[7] According to Book Marks, primarily from American publications, the book received a "rave" consensus, based on thirteen critics: eight "rave", four "positive", and one "mixed". ^[8] In May/June 2007 issue of Bookmarks , the book was scored four out of five. The magazine's critical summary quotes The Los Angeles Times : "It may even be, in its own modest way, a great American novel". ^[9]

Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #2. ^[10]

The book won the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel^{[ citation needed ]} and the 2007 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. ^{[11] [12]}

References

1. Lieberstein, Paul (March 2007). "The Only Business Book You Need This Year". GQ. Vol. 77, no. 3. p. 206.
2. Poniewozik, James (March 18, 2007). "Pink Slip Blues". The New York Times .
3. "Briefly Noted: Then We Came to the End"; newyorker.com; March 26, 2007.
4. "The Leisure Meter". Esquire. Vol. 147, no. 3. March 2007. p. 68.
5. O'Rourke, Meghan (March 8, 2007). "Hell Is Other Cubicles: Joshua Ferris' new novel about work, the great American pastime". slate.com. Slate.
6. "The 10 Best Books of 2007"; The New York Times; December 9, 2007.
7. "Then We Came to the End". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 11 Mar 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
8. "Then We Came to the End". Book Marks. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
9. "Then We Came to the End By Joshua Ferris". Bookmarks. Archived from the original on 8 Sep 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
10. Grossman, Lev (December 24, 2007). "The 10 Best Fiction Books". Time . pp. 44–45. Archived from the original on 2007-12-12.
11. "Kate Braestrup and Joshua Ferris Win Barnes & Noble Discover Prize". Publishers Weekly . 2008-02-28. Archived from the original on 2024-04-23. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
12. "Jean Valentine, Junot Díaz Among Finalists for Los Angeles Times Book Prizes". Poets & Writers . 2008-03-05. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved 2024-04-23.

External links

• Official website