Raronauer’ed

Very Short List is like your friend who never stops emailing you about that great new book/movie/internet sensation. Earnest, reliable, kind of annoying when you’re busy at work, Very Short List is like an ad-sponsored version of being friends with me.

So when Very Short List gushed about Joshua Ferris’s debut novel, Then We Came to the End, I added it to my own Very Long List of books to read. When the Times Book Review put it on the cover last weekend, I went to Strand and bought the last half priced review copy.

I’m about half way through, and I can’t decide what to make of it. The monotony, drama and helpless of office life is depicted with unflinching honesty. Ferris’s introduction of characters, ambiguous time sequences and the book’s feeling of urgency and listlessness so accurately reflect what it’s like to work under fluorescent lights it’s almost hard to enjoy what he’s accomplished. I can’t imagine a worse college graduation present or a better retirement gift than this book.

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For those following the commenting action on Raronauer’ed at home, “Naughty” asked what color my shirt was in response to my embarrassing details archive story. This is a reference to another misguided attempt to be funny in an introduction. The first night of college, my floor played the adjective name game. Here are the rules: 1. Describe yourself with an adjective that begins with the same letter as your name. 2. Feel like a tool. Wearing a red shirt, I introduced myself as “Red-Shirted Rebecca.” The only people who enjoyed that were Energetic Erin, who would be my roommate for four years, and Naughty Nicola, who is my roommate now. Everyone else thought I was a jerk.