Book Review - Then We Came To The End

I've been meaning to write this review for the last TWO weeks now and am finally getting around to it!! I "recently" finished reading, "Then We Came To The End" by Joshua Ferris. This was another book I was giving for one of my many birthday's (I think it was last year's), and now I am currently up to date with all the books I've been meaning to read for the last few years. I received this book as a gift from my friend Roxie. I don't think she read it, but heard that is was suppose to be funny and kind of like a book version of the TV show "The Office" (and I LOVE that show!).

This book takes place in an office setting of an unnamed Chicago marketing/advertising firm that is going through downsizing and layoffs. The book talks about office dynamics, pranks, gossip, meeting deadlines, spreading rumors, looking forward to smoke breaks, free food in the break room, and someone stealing from other people's workstations. How much time we spend in our offices and with the people we work with. We spend at least 8 hours a day with our co-workers and how well do we really know them? We spend more time with them than our own families most of the time! When employees are "let go" or laid-off, they call it "walking Spanish." Then there is something called "Celebrity Death Watch" where people in the office would take bets on who would be the next person to die and "certain wagering individuals would profit from his death".

This book starts out pretty funny... Tom Mota wants to throw his computer out the window when he's let go (sixty story's up), Chris Yop is let go and secretly returns to the office wanting to finish a project and prove his worth, and people coming back to dismantle their chairs, hide them in a suitcase to take and throw into Lake Michigan. Then the book gets kind of serious with the rumors of their supervisor having breast cancer. And then the book gets a little uncomfortably funny.... If you worked in an office/cubicle setting, then you would think its an amusing story, but unfortunately I really wouldn't recommend this as a "must read" book.