2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

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2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 · rating details · 2,885 ratings · 721 reviews

Is this what’s in store?

June 12, 2030 started out like any other day in memory—and by then, memories were long. Since cancer had been cured fifteen years before, America’s population was aging rapidly. That sounds like good news, but consider this: millions of baby boomers, with a big natural predator picked off, were sucking dry benefits and resources that were never mean

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Published May 19th 2011 by Tantor Media, Inc. (first published May 10th 2011)

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Nov 20, 2012 Reid rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another dystopian future predicted for the United States, this one based largely on the faulty, misinformed, hysterical rantings of people like Paul Ryan. Brooks has swallowed the reigning conservative economic fallacy whole, that our indebtedness to China and other countries will somehow evolve into them taking over our country and that the aging population will somehow overwhelm our capacity to serve them. He also strays dangerously into an odd little utopia in which limits on human rights...more Yet another dystopian future predicted for the United States, this one based largely on the faulty, misinformed, hysterical rantings of people like Paul Ryan. Brooks has swallowed the reigning conservative economic fallacy whole, that our indebtedness to China and other countries will somehow evolve into them taking over our country and that the aging population will somehow overwhelm our capacity to serve them. He also strays dangerously into an odd little utopia in which limits on human rights are justified in the name of a sort of constrained peace. Odd stuff.

I suppose this would be forgivable on some level if the book were well-plotted, but I found myself with a headache from the number of times I rolled my eyes in disbelief at the linear, uncomplicated little world he has invented. All is consensus (try counting the number of times there is unanimous agreement on something that in reality would create enormous and justified controversy). Because he wants to believe that this little world will come true (though it is more difficult to say if this is a cautionary tale or a world he would actually enjoy living in), Brooks becomes the puppet-master, pulling the strings of his cardboard-cutout characters to manipulate them into lining up in his Brave New World. None of these people have real lives or complex motives; rather, they conform dutifully to the author's dream world. And the president's love story is nothing short of ludicrous, not in the possibility of it, but in how conveniently it fits into the author's strange desire to derail a basically good man.

This book is most reminiscent of Ayn Rand, her of the paranoid fantasies and fantastic assumptions about human nature and the nature of the economic, social, and physical relationships among us. That she was wrong never stopped her from advocating her strange brand of essentially totalitarian libertarianism. Brooks seems cut from the same cloth. His hero, though Chinese, is one of the more John Galt-ish creations I have read this century. The author has an ax to grind and nothing as inconvenient as the facts will get in the way of his grinding away.

Which is not to say that the book is not in some ways well-written. He can certainly put a sentence together and has a knack for dialogue. But, please, spare me the uninformed predictive sociology he is far from being qualified to practice. That Brooks is a well-known anhedonic will come as no surprise to those who don't know him from his films, but those were always leavened with a certain sardonic humor that is entirely missing here.(less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My daughter suggested this book so I got it from the library. I like Albert Brooks so it was not a real risk. After finishing (and btw, finishing is a strong word to use since the book just seemed to end and not be finished) 2030 I don't feel cheated. By that I mean that my time reading was not entirely wasted. I enjoyed the story. I really don't feel one way or the other about the writing, the characters or the story. I'm just done reading it. I ran out of pages. Brooks must have a very good im...more

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May 06, 2013 Genevieve Sharon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead__Gene Fowler

Every person seems to think they can write a great book. Every person .

Just because you're Albert Brooks, The famous movie star (so clever, so droll , so funny ) ; when it comes down to the sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper --make that laptop) just because you think you can does not mean you can. Those who can write are writers. Nice try though.

Steve Martin sold lot...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Doreen Dalesandro rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to this book.
Genre: fiction, near-future, US politics

I've enjoyed Albert Brooks in film, especially Broadcast News and Lost in America. I was unsure of him as a novelist. But I found 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America to be thought-provoking, terrifyingly plausible, and laced with humor. The ending left me wanting more of the story...

Dick Hill did an excellent job narrating.

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May 22, 2011 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: california, north-america, speculative-fiction

2030 is like an action flick version of the Daily Show meets West Wing meets the Lost Generation meets Coma & Cocoon except wait a minute . . . this book is just about, well, us; Americans today,right now: what we think about, what we do, what we fear, what motivates us. I gorged on this book.

Is it funny? Not particularly? Is it exciting? Not really. Does it present unique ideas in a new way? Sorta but not in a spectacular way. Then, what makes it so readable? THE PACE. It keeps on moving,...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Clay Nichols rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

2014 is more like it. Given recent financial quaking in Europe, you have to give it to Albert Brooks for his prescience. What he presents as the nation's future, awash in insoluble debt and brought to the brink by natural disaster, seems all too plausible these days. He scores points for envisioning what would likely be the fallout of increasing financial disparity between generations -- what happens when a generation finally fails to live better than the previous in this country. And his take i...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Gerri Leen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: will-look-for-this-author-again

I love Albert Brooks for his combination of cynicism and romanticism. I love his skill at mixing pathos and comedy. I love the fact that there is not one thing in this book that doesn't seem entirely possible, and very, very likely, by the year 2030. Brooks has been a force in film for years but that doesn't always translate to print. Fortunately for us, he's a genius in either medium. His characters are engaging. There are a score of them, something I normally find very hard to track, but he in...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Mel B. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have mixed feelings about this book. There are too many characters sometimes -- I had to really focus to remember which character we were following now. That's the problem from the writing standpoint. The ideology standpoint comes from getting a sense of a long, preachy book, not sure which side I was supposed to be on, which side the author was supposed to be on, or where we would even be at the end. [return]The themes are of real concern -- rising medical costs, and the perception of younger...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Worth added it · review of another edition

I remember as a kid the fear was that we were all going to be killed by nuclear warheads from the USSR; now the fear is that too many of us won't die soon enough. Assume that cancer has been cured and the US has maxed out all of it's credit cards and we've just been hit by the big one in Los Angeles... Even if it all feels actually a bit too optimistic (and believe me, that is not the book's intention) and it fizzles out in the end--an end that doesn't really feel like it lives up to the promise...more

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Apr 04, 2013 MacK rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: am-lit, contemporary

Lately, it seems like every time I go out to eat, or head to a concert I'm out of my depth. Sure I know more about interest rates and federal tax codes and might even sound adult, but I still feel like I should sit at the kids' table while my grandparents (or at least people who look like my grandparents) run the place.

That's how I felt reading Albert Brooks' 2030, the 2010 book from the Academy award nominated wit who chose to make his first ever novel into a light-hearted dystopia where the bo...more Lately, it seems like every time I go out to eat, or head to a concert I'm out of my depth. Sure I know more about interest rates and federal tax codes and might even sound adult, but I still feel like I should sit at the kids' table while my grandparents (or at least people who look like my grandparents) run the place.

That's how I felt reading Albert Brooks' 2030, the 2010 book from the Academy award nominated wit who chose to make his first ever novel into a light-hearted dystopia where the boomers are the single greatest problem facing America.

To be sure there's a lot of potential for Brooks' perceived dystopia. A world where the eradication of cancer leads to an overwhelming surfeit of baby boomers, clogging the social security system and burdening the younger generation for decades on end. While there's a good chance that such an event would actually occur, it doesn't exactly engender amusement. While I freely admit that not every dystopian novel needs to be funny (most great ones--including Fahrenheit 451 and 1984--aren't), it's a little disappointing that such a humorous author could not find a greater array of comedy to present in his debut novel.

Unfortunately, that's not the biggest challenge with 2030. The bigger issue is that Brooks is clearly still finding his stride as a novelist. 2030 is littered with the kinds of heavy handed exposition orgies that anyone in a creative writing class knows to avoid (I can practically hear my professors in Ghana shouting show don't tell!!) But there's also a degree of awkwardness that surrounds Brooks' moralizing on behalf of a younger generation. He abhors the entitlement and self-importance of the baby-boomers and writes passionately about how younger people (Gen Xers and Millenials in particular) respond to that. And yet, Brooks is a baby boomer, so why should his voice stand in for my own? Why should he create a clarion call to the newly mature generation of Americans who will foot the bill for his?

While the concept behind Brooks' novel is compelling, the execution fails to convert the concept into an excellent novel. In the process, he sounds every bit as self-important as the generation he dismisses, leaving the Xers/Millenials reading to feel like they're sitting at the kids table, yet again.(less)

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Mar 10, 2013 Kacey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One thing about writing dystopian/futuristic novels is how to make it believable. This book has certainly done this, and for that I applaud the author.

It could be because I'm in the "younger" generation, but there were a lot of things about this book that really resonated with me. The struggles for job security, the overwhelming debt, the frustration with the health care system... I've felt all this. I can easily see events like this taking place in the future. I especially found the solution ve...more

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Jan 19, 2013 F. Davis James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have been a huge Albert Brooks fan for many years since he got lost and ended up in Safford Arizona, a small town not far from where I grew up. Well not close either, we would take a 4 hour bus ride to play them in athletic events. Still it was the closest I got to Hollywood growing up in the deserts of Arizona.
2030 tells of a bleak future, one many Americans may be very, ok extremely uncomfortable with. We see the cure of Cancer as the next great revelation for mankind. Fire, the wheel, round...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, read-in-2013, comedy, futuristic, los-angeles

I like Albert Brooks. He's funny. Especially when he's introducing the subject of euthanasia. HOWEVER....this book is overly long, has too many characters, and few of them have happy endings. I don't need a happy ending, but it reminded me of when I was 12 years old and went over to my friend's house to play Barbies. I tired of the characters, so I would kill them off. Albert Brooks is a little bit more sophisticated than my 12 year old self, but there are certainly problems.

The book was bogged...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Jeffrey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's more of a timeline from the years 2030-2033, than an actual novel. The storyline plays out, but the book just ends in a rather anti-climatic ending that just leaves you wanting more. The novel follows the lives of several main characters, but in the end only a handful of them seem to actually have any profound effect on the storyline or the ending. They're just there to provide a more realistic view of the future Brooks has provided. He tells their story and has them in some key events, but...more It's more of a timeline from the years 2030-2033, than an actual novel. The storyline plays out, but the book just ends in a rather anti-climatic ending that just leaves you wanting more. The novel follows the lives of several main characters, but in the end only a handful of them seem to actually have any profound effect on the storyline or the ending. They're just there to provide a more realistic view of the future Brooks has provided. He tells their story and has them in some key events, but in the end they don't really matter much. It's just an anecdotal viewpoint. The problem with that is you end up reading several pages of filler on the lives of those characters that don't really have any relevance to the story. For instance Brooks, tells the story of an encounter that one of the characters has in a restaurant with another person. The encounter occupies a few pages, but it was really just useless to include. It's not profound thought nor does it affect how the character progress, it's just an event that happened. To go along with that you'll also find yourself reading detailed descriptions of inventions that have been created or how people live life in the future. Some of the inventions that Brooks describe don't really help to scope the future nor are they groundbreaking inventions.

The introduction is pretty dragged out. It takes Brooks about 50-60 pages to introduce the problems or the basis of the story, while he landscapes his futuristic world and introduces most of the major characters. Once you get past that block, the story beings to take off and the the pace is quite enjoyable. Every chapter becomes 10pages with storyline of a few characters, it'll conclude with an event, but because there's several characters you won't find out what happened until several chapters later.

The story introduces 2 key problems with the future of the US, people living to long and affecting the lives of the youth, and the earthquake that devastates Los Angeles. The problem though is that only 1 of the problems seems to be fixed. The other problem lingers throughout the story, but really doesn't have much of a solution. To me it just seems like Brooks either got lazy or couldn't figure out how to end the story. The ending is just so poor that it ruins the entire story, and all that you've read. You read through the lives of those characters, but how it comes to an end for that character just isn't very satisfying.

In the end, the story just leaves me wanting more. Too much was left unsaid, and I felt like there just wasn't enough closure on some of the characters.

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Oct 28, 2012 Diane Kistner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Review of the Advance Readers' Edition:

I'm of two minds about Albert Brook's near-futuristic novel, "Twenty Thirty." Now that I've finished it, I do like it, and I can see that it could become a very effective movie in the style of Paul Haggis' "Crash." But my initial reaction to it was negative because most in the cast of characters seem to have names starting with various combinations of B, M, and S with a few other common consonants like L and C used only a little less often. The names sound...more Review of the Advance Readers' Edition:

I'm of two minds about Albert Brook's near-futuristic novel, "Twenty Thirty." Now that I've finished it, I do like it, and I can see that it could become a very effective movie in the style of Paul Haggis' "Crash." But my initial reaction to it was negative because most in the cast of characters seem to have names starting with various combinations of B, M, and S with a few other common consonants like L and C used only a little less often. The names sound linguistically and ethnically very much the same, so coupled with Brook's minimalistic, action-driven writing style, this confused the heck out of me as to just who was who. Normally I appreciate it when a writer leaves most of the details about a character to the reader's imagination instead of fleshing them all out, but in this case the characters all ran together for me.

Finally, I figured out that the novel is more like a script with Brooks apparently "leaving it to casting" to decide who will play the parts. In a movie, however, the viewer can use visual cues someone else came up with to jog the memory; not so in a book that leans so heavily on the reader to provide all the cues. Only when I started plugging in images of actors I thought might play the different characters and worked to associate each name with (or dis-associate it from) some aspect of the actor was I able to keep it all straight in my mind. (Perhaps because of all the L's, I visualized a mature Laura Linney in the part of Susanna Colbert, and only then was I able to stop misreading her name as "Cole-bear"!) Am I giving away my age?

All this said, what is eerily effective about this book for me is that I am now (like everyone else on the planet) experiencing one unbelievably awful situation after another, often happening within days or even hours of each other. Oil spills, earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear disasters. Shootings, uprisings, explosions, tension, dissension. Depositions, terrorisms, and multiple wars. Hypocrisies, thefts and deceptions of the political and financial kind. As chaotic and bizarre as some of them are, most of the futuristic scenarios in "Twenty Thirty" feel all too familiar. And, as always, there are the obscenely wealthy doing what they are always so busy doing: turning the vast majority of us against each other so we won't notice that they are actually the ones causing most of the problems and stealing us blind.

Although clearly a plot-driver, the basic premise of the "youth vs. olds" battle was a disappointment to me, not because it isn't a likely rift in our society--thanks to nefarious efforts to privatize entitlements, it already is--but because Brooks did not quite succeed in stripping away the fallacies that cause this rift to be perpetuated or do anything to expose the true source of these generational tensions. Just as the Enough Is Enough members in Brooks' fantasy do, too many young people today have the idea that retired people are supported in lavish lifestyles by taxpayers and don't have to pay a dime for their healthcare.

As he'd hoped to do, Brooks succeeds in writing a probable future; even the more implausible happenings In "Twenty Thirty" seem entirely plausible from our 2011 vantage point. There are also some very clever ideas in the book that I could see somebody taking to market today. I'd like to think that Brooks did not intend to throw gasoline on the smoke-and-mirrors, us-versus-them fire, but he does. He could correct this flaw in part by having the new president overtly include a reference to "young and old" in his speech. Then, perhaps, the final paragraph in the book could truly leave readers reflecting on possibilities and feeling hopeful about humanity's future instead of sounding its dystopian kumbaya.(less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Ryandake rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

sit down, my children, and let me larn you up on the world. for the entire book. because you're never going to get out of infodump territory, nay, not even unto the end of the book.

it's a tough dilemma for people writing future (or very historical) fiction: how do you world-build? how do you get across so much information, some of it fascinating, some of it mundane but necessary, without turning your novel into a lecture? Brooks didn't even try not to lecture us. once past the first 50 pages, th...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Carolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In his debut novel, actor, director and screenwriter Albert Brooks takes his trademark pessimistic viewpoint, liberally dosed with splashes of humor, to envision a not-too-distant future America. It is 2030 AD in the United States of America. Cancer has been cured, and that, along with several other medical breakthroughs, has people living not only longer, but in better physical condition at eighty than forty-year-olds today. On the flip side, the disproportionate number of elderly drawing on So...more In his debut novel, actor, director and screenwriter Albert Brooks takes his trademark pessimistic viewpoint, liberally dosed with splashes of humor, to envision a not-too-distant future America. It is 2030 AD in the United States of America. Cancer has been cured, and that, along with several other medical breakthroughs, has people living not only longer, but in better physical condition at eighty than forty-year-olds today. On the flip side, the disproportionate number of elderly drawing on Social Security and governmental health care has plunged the country into insurmountable debt. Most young people are barely getting by and there is growing resentment at watching “the olds” enjoy a "sunset years" lifestyle they know will never be there for them.

Matthew Bernstein, the first Jewish president, privately questions the amount of resources devoted to the elderly. However, no one who has any hope of retaining a public office would dare buck the AARP. Mostly, the government has its hands full trying to maintain the status quo. That is, until the Big One, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake, levels Los Angeles and much of southern California. The only country with the means to loan the USA the $20 trillion it would take to rebuild is China, and they aren’t interested in floating us another loan. Instead, they offer to rebuild the city with all the speed, efficiency and improvements that can only be accomplished by the Chinese, including the revolutionary medical concepts of Shen Li. In return, they receive a half stake in future revenues, and American citizenship for the Chinese workers.

Brad Miller is an eighty-year-old man living in LA at the time of the earthquake. He is first assigned a spot in a huge tent erected where the Rose Bowl once stood, where he stays until his son takes out another mortgage to secure Brad a spot on one of the retirement cruise ships, vessels especially outfitted for seniors to live out their golden years. His son hopes that if Brad is ever compensated for the loss of his condo, he will repay at least part of the loan, but any hopes of seeing that money are gradually fading. Otherwise, it’s just one more financial burden for the already over-stretched son to bear.

Max Leonard understands the son’s concerns. Although from a wealthy background, as a young man he knows that his life won’t be as good as his parents has been and he’s angry, very angry. What will it take to get someone in authority to listen-- to understand that the young have rights, too? Kathy Bernard, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after her father’s death, doesn’t see any way out of her financial morass.

Futuristic without being science fiction, 2030 appeals to the intellect more than the emotions. The story is leisurely paced while Brooks takes these and other apparently disparate characters and intersects their lives in a smooth, believable fashion. Along the way, future history and discoveries are outlined in such a convincing manner, with basis in current events, that this imaginary scenario is given an uncomfortable realism. The only weak part of the novel is the ending; I expected more resolution than was given. I would recommend this novel for fans of dystopias such as those described in Nineteen Eighty Four or Slapstick, fans of Albert Brooks’ comedy and screen work, and fans of intelligent, dark comedies.
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May 22, 2012 Nancy Newcomer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book by Albert Brooks (actor, screenwriter, director, comedian) is not the best literary book of the year, but its themes and concepts are staying with me long after I finished it
He is imagining life as it could be in the year 2030 and it is quite a compelling, if discouraging, scenario. The parameters are clear: cancer (95% of it) has been cured. Also Alzeimers, Cerebral Palsy, heart diseases and others. There is a pill to combat obesity so everyone is thin and in good shape. People are...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Justine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia

I'm not quite sure what to think here. I enjoyed the fast paced writing - it got the ideas across quickly and efficiently, but the closer I got to the end of the book, the more I disagreed with the author.

Of course, I realize that there is no way I would agree with everything, but the more the book commenced, the more I thought it was unbelievable. The way the people of the US agreed nearly unanimously to any proposal set forth by the President (view spoiler)...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brooks idea about American society in the year 2030 is spot on. I could absolutely see this happening, which is pretty depressing. In Brooks' future, most ailments have been cured and people are living to be 120 or so. The generation gap is a bigger chasm than ever, and the "olds" hold most of the wealth and power. The middle-aged can't get ahead and the young are resentful. Brooks follows a representative of each age group, as well as the President, until their stories intertwine for the big fi...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the kind of novel that is nearly impossible to put down because the plot is fast-paced and compelling, and the narrative crackles with fresh ideas and insight. 2030 is not a Science Fiction thriller in that it is not really about 'the future', but an attempt to address moral problems which vex contemporary American society. And, each ethical position or principle which Mr. Brooks examines is a logical extrapolation of events and issues that have already happened, or very likely might occ...more

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Oct 05, 2011 M0rt0n rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the debut novel by the great writer/director/actor Albert Brooks. As the title indicates, this book propels the reader 20 years into a future, a time when the 2011 U.S. debt crisis looks like a mere speedbump on the road to national financial ruin. In 2030, medical marvels have led to incredible life span increases and a growing social conflict bubbles as the nation's youth are faced with the burden of paying for benefits for retirees regularly living into their 100s. Cue the 9.1 earthqu...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Gerald Curtis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having recently read “On Second After” about the collapse of the United States following an EMP that destroyed all electronic devices as well as all electrical distribution, this book presented a very interesting alternate view. There is no catastrophe to destroy the United States – except the inevitable consequences we all know must someday comeback to haunt our childish, shortsighted and irresponsible addiction to debt, mixed in with very plausible predictions about the growing population of o...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The copy I read was left behind at a hotel without the jacket. I thought the author was just another guy with the same name as the actor and I guess I wasn't listening to NPR the day they reviewed 2030. So I had absolutely no preconceptions, there was only a plain black cover not even a sub-title to lure me in.

Spoiler Alert.

The main reason I kept reading this book was to find out what happened once China re-built LA. the author never got that far, it just stops too early with a newly elected nat...more The copy I read was left behind at a hotel without the jacket. I thought the author was just another guy with the same name as the actor and I guess I wasn't listening to NPR the day they reviewed 2030. So I had absolutely no preconceptions, there was only a plain black cover not even a sub-title to lure me in.

Spoiler Alert.

The main reason I kept reading this book was to find out what happened once China re-built LA. the author never got that far, it just stops too early with a newly elected naturalized Chinese President giving a rah-rah speech about populating planets with a "We are One. We are Earth" mantra. Kinda spooky.

I was expecting all kinds of unforeseen disasters, or even minor setbacks, consequences of some sort, to the Chinese/American business partners in rebuilding LA. No, Albert Brooks imagined the Chinese and the Americans living in Pleasant Valley Sunday apparently experiencing amnesia about things like Tienanmen Square, One Child Policy, Forced Abortions, and all the things in "Wild Swans" these things are never mentioned. It's all just honky-dory, a seamless transition. I just can't swallow that. Our two countries have pretty different cultures and history and outlook on the world, we value things differently, I don't see us meshing without some kind of hiccups.

I also thought the relationships and the characters were weird. The way they talked, the way they kissed, I thought Betty's motivation for a divorce and leaving the white house was thin. I thought Clyde and Brad were oddly selfish and I thought Brooks was doing that on purpose to show how the older generation had a strong sense of entitlement and were always expecting the government to jump in with cash to solve any problem, but maybe I misinterpreted it. I felt at least half of Clyde's motivation in helping Kathy (why such a generational-ly inappropriate name?) was just him putting money into a 4ok, a retirement fund.

And, according NY Times and others reviews this book was funny. Uh, what? When the animatronic Lincoln answers a question about John Booth by saying, "remember you're talking to me when I'm alive" was not funny. I was expecting something far more clever or at least, "Oh, yes he was a fantastic Hamlet."

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it, I could just tell you about and it would be far more interesting.(less)

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Aug 20, 2011 Jim Leffert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brooks, the comedian, actor, and filmmaker, spins an imaginative, timely, thought-provoking satiric story about life in 2030, when present day developments—the extension of life through medical research, America’s growing fiscal insolvency, the high cost of health care--have gone several notches beyond where they are today. It’s an entertaining thought experiment: the first Jewish President (half-Jewish actually, but this hardly counts) must respond to a 9.1 earthquake that reduces Los Angeles t...more Brooks, the comedian, actor, and filmmaker, spins an imaginative, timely, thought-provoking satiric story about life in 2030, when present day developments—the extension of life through medical research, America’s growing fiscal insolvency, the high cost of health care--have gone several notches beyond where they are today. It’s an entertaining thought experiment: the first Jewish President (half-Jewish actually, but this hardly counts) must respond to a 9.1 earthquake that reduces Los Angeles to rubble, when America simply lacks the money to rebuild the devastated city. Meanwhile, America is deeply divided between the elderly, who wield considerable political clout, and the younger generation, who pay dearly, through steep taxes and other payment requirements, for the elders’ living expenses and medical care. Elements within the younger generation are turning violent.

The main characters are Matthew Bernstein, the President; Susannah Colbert, his Secretary of the Treasury; a disgruntled young couple, Kathy Bernard and Max Leonard (Kathy is saddled with a $350,000 debt because her unemployed father fell behind on paying for his medical insurance and then got very ill); Sam Mueller, the medical researcher who cured cancer and became wealthy in the process; Brad Miller, an older man whose Los Angeles condo is destroyed and who ends up living on a “retirement cruise ship”; and Shen Li, a young, charismatic Chinese entrepreneur who found a way to improve the delivery of health care in China.

Brooks has fashioned a plausible picture of our society 20 years hence—he seems to have taken the trouble to study technological, social, and political trends and extrapolates in an instructive and provocative fashion. While the book is good for a few chuckles, it is not a “laugh out loud” tale. The novel’s major limitation, though, is that we don’t get a vivid, “from the inside out” sense of the characters. Perhaps Brooks’ third person expository style, which is kind of monotonic, keeps these characters at a distance. It’s as if they are chess pieces that the author manipulates in a clever and interesting fashion. I was interested in the story but I didn’t feel strongly for them as people.
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Jul 29, 2011 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: male-author

This book tells the story of what the United States may look like in 2030. It is a very interesting depiction of what could happen if there are no solutions in the areas of national debt, health care, and Social Security/Medicare. In the year 2030, cancer and a number of other diseases have been cured and people are living longer than ever. The AARP has a massive amount of power. Few people have adequate health care, and if they do, they spend their entire lives trying to pay for it. China is th...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Loring Wirbel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brooks clearly intended a fast-reading tour de force with '2030', not a piece of 1984-style literature. For what it attempts to do, it is an interesting and plausible work, particularly in the scary 2011 environment of dodged debt ceilings and failed states.

I'll call him on three issues - First, there are minor typos here and there, and minor factual mistakes that a better fact-checker might have remedied (e.g., "Strategic Air Command" has been "Strategic Command" since the 1990s).

Second, the ov...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

2030 by Albert Brooks is a fiction book with many realistic undertones. In the year 2030, Albert tells the disheartening state of America because of a bottomless pit of debt and the younger generations of Americans' from age 20-50 who see no hope for a slice of life with the security and prosperity that the "baby boomers" enjoyed through the majority of their lifetime. And this is cause for an uprising to the older people, even radically violent. While this is all taking place, a massive catastr...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Disappointing. Coherent and relevant enough to hold your interest, but I expected more from Albert Brooks. Instead of real insight into the direction the country is heading, it seems like he just picked a few popular search categories from Google News from recent years (health care, national debt, China, social security) and just extended the most pessimistic assumptions of each out twenty years.

The book's not funny, by the way. That's not a deal-breaker, but a bit of a surprise. Moments of humo...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction

In 2030, Albert Brooks examines at a possible/probable near future for the United States. He imagines a world in which our country has recently solved most of the medical problems that affect longevity; cancer is cured, bones can be regenerated, and the aging clock can be turned back decades. The result is a population heavy with old people who feel and look great, but are sucking up all of the country's limited financial resources. Young people are angry and resentful, as they face a lifetime o...more

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About Albert Brooks

Albert Lawrence Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein; July 22, 1947) is an American actor, voice actor, writer, comedian, and director. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for his role in Broadcast News. His voice acting credits include Marlin the clownfish in Finding Nemo, and recurring guest voices for the animated television series The Simpsons, including Russ Cargill in The Simpso...more

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