Jennifer Government
Posted on March 16, 2005
Jennifer Government by Max Barry is a dystopian novel with a bit of a twist. Instead of the all-powerful government controlling peoples’ lives, it is companies. It is mass-consumerism and globalization taken to an extreme.
In the book, the United States has expended to include Great Britain, all of South America, Canada, Australia and a host of other countries. The EU is a group of countires where they don’t speak English and ridiculed for being backwards and having to pay taxes. American is spoken, because nobody speaks English anymore, not even the people in the English territories. Since taxes have been abolished, two competing brand loyaly organizations – US Alliance and Team Advantage – have come to power and the government is weak. If a crime has been committed, it will not be investigated until the victim has the money to pay someone to look into it. There are no last names, people take the the name of the organization they work for, hence the protagonist Jennifer Government and her main antagonist John Nike.
The book starts out with John Nike hiring Hack Nike to help build “street-cred” for the $2500 Nike Mercurys about to launch. Hack is hired to kill random customers to do this. However, he has a conscience, so he outsources it to The Police, but since it is a competitive world, they outsource it to the NRA. And thus the story begins…
The book reminded me quite a bit of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, except without the Metaverse. In that novel, the government is weak, if it exists at all, and companies/franchulates control peoples lives. In this novel, the government is hamstrung by the lack of funding that they have to ask the victims for money. People get in riots because someone chooses Burger King over McDonalds.
The whole book is a dark, dystopian, biting satire, and the character John Nike incerdibly funny and evil at the same time. I could try to include some of that here, but it wouldn’t do it justice. You will just have to read the book, which I recommend.
Is it a great book? No. The heroine, Jennifer Government, seems weakly written when compared to John Nike. Maybe it is because John Nike steals the show. He is one of those characters you love to hate. He is charming, witty, decietful, and he has most of the best lines. So it is not a great book, but it is a good book. This is the author’s sophomore effort, so hopefully he will hone his craft in the future.
Related posts:
- Review Haiku – John Rabe
- Regulation Play
- The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy
- Independence
- Executable file
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
