And Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

'And then we came to the end' by Joshua Ferris.

This book is about an advertising agencies and the small (and sometimes big) dramas that occur within the mind-rotting timeframe of your standard vaguely creative 9-5 job.

The book employs a very simple narrative device, but it's completely original, to my knowledge at least. It uses the collective noun 'we' to tell the story, dipping into a character every now and then. It's quite difficult to describe, really, but it means that it's narrated by nobody and everybody all at once. An interesting experiment in perception and point of view. It's really rather good. The book is set during the dot-com burst, and although it's extremely Americanised in its language and tone, using phrases such as 'couple things' rather than 'couple OF things', which may annoy just me, but nevertheless do annoy. It's quite touching in places and very funny in a detached kind of way, which totally fits in with the narrative style. The cover is wicked too. Very retro and my copy is made of that material that never seems to warp or show fingerprints. It even survived a journey to the beach. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I've a feeling it's going to break my heart.

As an aside, I just scanned through some reviews of this book. Barely any of the big papers (Guardian, Times etc.) mention this narrative style, whereas most of the Amazon reviews do. The press just give a low-down on the story. The press really is worthless.

Edit: I've since lent this out and lost it because the person moved from his job. If you've read this book then you'll know how fitting an end to And Then We Came to the End this is. And yes, it was depressing as hell in the end. The best stories tend to be, though.

Recommended, although the heavy contemporary Americanisms can grate at times.