Timothy Luo Reviews The We Came To the End

The book I am reading is called Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. This book is about office life, and the little stories and gossips that surround it. It is a very acidly funny and entertaining book, with a lot of rude words. It has a casual tone, and is very relatable if you have experienced office life, which I haven’t obviously.
There is no major conflict in the novel, but the employees in the agency have the constant fear of getting fired. Layoffs may happen any day, and throughout the book, we see dozens of employees getting the kick in the behind. Technically, there is no way that the conflict will ever be resolved, since getting fired is the inevitable result of hiring more employees. No one ever tries to solve the conflict either. They either solemnly accept that they were fired, or they hatch up a plan for revenge… eg terrorize the workers with a paintball gun, dressed as a clown.
There is no single plot in the book. The book is filled with many short stories and gossip they have amongst themselves. Their stories can be about kidnapped daughters, dead coworkers, totem poles, chairs, their unhealthy boss…and a lot more. This contributes to the reasons why there are dozens of main characters in this book.
Tom Mota: the craziest character in the book. He wears the same shirt 30 days straight. After he gets fired (to no one’s surprise), he throws his computer out the window and smashed the window too. After getting fired, he comes back dressed as a clown terrorizes people with a paintball gun. He even asks a fellow worker “Why aren’t you laughing? Why aren’t you s***ting your pants with laughter right now?”(Ferris, 350) when he points his “gun” at him. This shows that his brain does not act like a normal one, and doesn’t see that he is scaring everyone. Then, out of everybody’s expectations, he joins the army for his superb marksmanship, and dies in Afghanistan. I say he’s the most interesting character in the story, but he’s not very believable… what a surprise. He does crazy things no one expects him to do, but seriously, why would you terrorize people with a paintball gun, and expect your boss to come have lunch with you after you “killed” half the people in the building?
Narrator: although never given a name, he (or she) fills in the background and other important details. He/she narrates using “we”, and like his/her coworkers, thinks that his job is boring, but is never less afraid of losing it.
Lynn Mason is the manager of the company, and is plagued with illness throughout the entire novel. She is a short, yet emanating an aura of power, even when she is in the hospital after a surgery. She is also very funny, but she never laughs, choosing to say “that’s funny”(Ferris,560), showing her seriousness. Lynn is probably the only believable character in the whole book. She is the only character that has some kind of weakness. She refuses to show her weakness to others except Joe, her assistant manager. This is believable because it is typical for a powerful person not to want to show any weaknesses to her subordinates.
Overall, this book is a wonderful book. I enjoyed it a lot, and I couldn’t stop reading after I started. I would recommend this book to people who have patience, and are looking for a book where there’ll be lots of funny parts. I also recommend this book to people who have experience working in the office, as they would have an easier time relating to it.