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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