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Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris - Book Group discussion thread

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Columba Oct 2019 9:24pm, 8 Oct 2019 18,538 posts	Quote Pin Columba That's a pity, Bazoaxe. Didn't it have any redeeming features for you?
Bazoaxe Oct 2019 9:36pm, 8 Oct 2019 15,363 posts	Quote Pin Bazoaxe That's maybe unnecessarily harsh of me. I did enjoy this at the start and felt it was a good story that I was enjoying. I just found though it kind of lost its way a bit. It was really after the section about Lynn directly that I found it hard to really follow the thread of the story.
McGoohan Oct 2019 8:57am, 9 Oct 2019 41,500 posts	Quote Pin McGoohan Inspired by this book (maybe 'inspired' is too strong a word) I got a copy of Don DeLillo's first novel, Americana whose first sentence gives TWCTTE its title. I've never liked DeLillo but I'd skimmed this and thought it looked pretty good and I should give him another chance. And I thought at first I was going to really enjoy it. There is some really beautiful writing within, but I'm halfway through and really, really hating it. The narrator is like a mixture of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman but less likeable. A lot of those beautiful sentences go absolutely nowhere as well. When you've read a few pages of it, it just seems like so much blather. And the dialogue remains awful. I may skim to the end to get it out of the way.
westmoors Oct 2019 1:53pm, 9 Oct 2019 3,559 posts	Quote Pin westmoors Finished this at lunchtime. Not really sure what to think of it. Never got to grips with who the narrator was or where the story was going. Found it very disjointed. I will now read back and see what everyone else thought.
LindsD Oct 2019 5:14pm, 11 Oct 2019 29,911 posts	Quote Pin LindsD I really liked this. I found it hard to get into at first - struggled, like McGoo, with the first person plural narration. Then suddenly I started to really like it and find it funny. Then, about a third of the way through, I started to lose interest. I found it hard to keep up with who was who, so I wasn't connecting stories and it was just a bit 'yeah, and?'. Then I came to the Lynn Mason bit. Woah..... I found that part very moving and absorbing. Then I sailed through to the end and was sad when I got there. I gave it an 8.
LindsD Oct 2019 5:21pm, 11 Oct 2019 29,912 posts	Quote Pin LindsD Ah Columba - now I need to read it again to unravel the Lynn Mason bit. I just assumed that the breast cancer hadn't killed her but the ovarian had, later. But you may well be right. That puts a whole different spin on it. And yes, we also had a chair story in my old office
LindsD Oct 2019 9:01pm, 11 Oct 2019 29,919 posts	Quote Pin LindsD Just re-reading the last chapter. Interesting how the new agency is more about the work and less about the chatter.
Diogenes Dec 2019 10:26pm, 2 Dec 2019 42,990 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes Interesting comments. I was loving the book and racing through it. Then I got to the Lyn section and I didn’t like it. I didn’t want the interruption. I was skim-reading, trying to get back to the office story as quickly as possible. Then, when I did, I couldn’t get back in to it. It palled a little. The Lyn section is the heart of the book, the crux, the bit you want to look aware from but can’t. When I finish the rest I will go back and read that part again.
LindsD Dec 2019 7:11am, 3 Dec 2019 31,412 posts	Quote Pin LindsD I feel like reading this again now.
McGoohan Dec 2019 7:21am, 3 Dec 2019 42,353 posts	Quote Pin McGoohan Yes - we've had some redundancies at work since I read this and it feels even more relevant now.