And Then We Came to the End

This novel by Joshua Ferris is the first I've read that was written in the first person plural. It may sound gimmicky, but for this book- a chronicle of office politics and panic about layoffs at a Chicago ad agency- it's perfect, since aside from a short interlude the plot doesn't focus on any employee in particular, but rather documents the deteriorating morale in the office as a unit. My knowledge of the advertising industry is limited to what I learned at a party when I arrived earlier than my friends and spent 20 minutes talking to someone who determines which magazine's readership is likely to be most receptive to Brawny ads; but for the purposes of the plot, pretty much any business where yuppies bill by the hour could stand in. While most offices will hopefully never see the spectacular freakouts that some employees of the unnamed agency undergo, the anxiety that the employees feel will probably ring uncomfortably true with readers in almost any industry these days. While other books stick to the more dramatic relationships between lovers or within families, this slightly dark, very witty story of coworkers embraces the fact that no matter what else is going on in your life, from 9 to 5, for better or worse, all you have is each other.