- from the opening of Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End.
So, the narrator asks, “Is this boring you yet?” No. Not even a bit. The novel’s first ten pages are the most effective, engrossing use of “we” and “our” I think I’ve ever read. There’s also the efficiency of it. Take the novel’s first seven sentences:
We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen. Most of us liked most everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything. Those who loved everyone were unanimously reviled. We loved free bagels in the morning. They happened all too infrequently.
The “we” and the “our” lets Ferris vault over relative trivialities — location, era, character names. It left me eager to read on. After ten pages, I remain eager to read on.
For more of Joshua Ferris, I recommend listening to the 5/13/2010 episode of The New Yorker fiction podcast: Monica Ali reading Ferris’s “The Dinner Party” and discussing it with fiction editor Deborah Treisman.
