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Sat 05 May 2007Wincing over the water coolerFictionJoshua Ferris's glittering debut novel is a brilliant, tragicomic view of office life with a sharply satirical sideswipe at the corporate world and the advertising industry.The action takes place in a swanky advertising agency in Chicago just as the dot-com bubble has burst. The days when the advertising art directors and copywriters pushed each other down the hall "really fast in a swivel chair" and when there were flowers and sweets in reception are fast coming to a close, and the lay-offs have begun.