In the horrifying, satirical near future of Max Barry's Jennifer
Government, American corporations literally rule the world. Everyone
takes his employer's name as his last name; once-autonomous nations
as far-flung as Australia belong to the USA; and the National Rifle
Association is not just a worldwide corporation, it's a hot, publicly
traded stock. Hack Nike, a hapless employee seeking advancement,
signs a multipage contract and then reads it. He discovers he's
agreed to assassinate kids purchasing Nike's new line of athletic
shoes, a stealth marketing maneuver designed to increase sales. And
the dreaded government agent Jennifer Government is after him. Like
Steve Aylett, Alexander Besher, Douglas Coupland, Paul Di Filippo,
Jim Munroe, Jeff Noon, and Chuck Palahniuk, Max Barry is an author of
smartass, punky satire for the late capitalist era. It's a hip and
happening field; before publication, Jennifer Government (Barry's
second novel) was optioned by Stephen Soderbergh and George Clooney's
Section 8 Films for a major motion picture. However, the level of
literary accomplishment varies wildly among practitioners, from
brilliant (Di Filippo and Palahniuk) to amateurish (Besher). This
field is so hot, its writers needn't be nearly as accomplished as
they'd have to become to break into any other form of fiction. That
said, like many of his fellow turn-of-the-millennium satirists, Barry
is uneven. He has a lively imagination and a sharp eye for the
absurdities and offenses of hypercorporate capitalism. But, with its
sketchy characters and slow dialogue, Jennifer Government will
disappoint anyone who believes the cover copy's grandiose claim that
this is "a Catch-22 for the New World Order." --Cynthia Ward
Book Details:
Edition Info: Paperback; 2004-01-31
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