The novel is a comedy about the American workplace, is narrated in the first-person plural, and is set in a fictitious Chicago ad agency facing challenges at the end of the 1990s Internet boom.

He moved to Chicago and worked in advertising for several years before obtaining an MFA in writing from UC Irvine.

In August 2008, The New Yorker published Ferris's short story "The Dinner Party", which earned him a nomination for the Shirley Jackson Awards.

Kirkus Reviews called it "audacious, risky and powerfully bleak, with the author's unflinching artistry its saving grace.

"[1] The New York Times review, by novelist Jay McInerney, called it "a road novel with severe tunnel vision.”[2] Ferris's third novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, was published in May 2014.