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Jennifer Government

by Max Barry (Goodreads Author)

3.62 · rating details · 4,126 ratings · 485 reviews

Taxation has been abolished, the government has been privatized, and employees take the surname of the company they work for. It's a brave new corporate world, but you don't want to be caught without a platinum credit card--as lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneakers by shooting customers...more

Paperback, 321 pages

Published January 6th 2004 by Vintage (first published October 17th 2002)

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Mar 24, 2011

Jessie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who like JJ Abrams

In a word, Max Barry is overrated. He has no ear for dialogue and his characters are completely flat and forgettable. He has an annoying habit of making his female characters drop-dead gorgeous and going on at length about just how gorgeous they are. And exactly what they’re wearing. That being said, he’s got a good enough sense of pacing and enough satirical bite (though it never breaks the skin) to keep a person reading. I mean, there has to be some explanation for the fact that I read three o...more

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Feb 15, 2009

Jensownzoo rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-reads, speculative-fiction

You know how it seems like certain American corporations have wormed their way into practically every market overseas (McDonalds, Pepsi, Coke, etc.)? This novel takes it to the extreme as it supposes what would happen if corporations and capitalism took over the world and government was minimized into an underfunded major crime (e.g. murder) prevention body. There are no longer family surnames...you take the name of the company that you work for like Bob Nike or Cathy McDonalds. You have to g...more

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Feb 25, 2009

Rob rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: "Can I get a Diet Stephenson, please?"

Recommended to Rob by: Amazon.com

Shelves: 2008, science-fiction

If asked to write the foreword to some 20th anniversary commemorative edition, I would say that Max Barry's Jennifer Government is like a bottle of Diet Neal Stephenson served with a twist of Christopher Moore (or perhaps a dash of Tom Robbins?) There is something uncannily similar between Snow Crash and Jennifer Government: in the comic book pacing; in the hyperbolic and impossible but chillingly familiar geo-political climate that he illustrates; in the characters that reek of auto-erotic car...moreIf asked to write the foreword to some 20th anniversary commemorative edition, I would say that Max Barry's Jennifer Government is like a bottle of Diet Neal Stephenson served with a twist of Christopher Moore (or perhaps a dash of Tom Robbins?) There is something uncannily similar between Snow Crash and Jennifer Government: in the comic book pacing; in the hyperbolic and impossible but chillingly familiar geo-political climate that he illustrates; in the characters that reek of auto-erotic caricature and yet are so well-drawn, so believable and sympathetic and damn plausible. You can see Y.T. dropping out of school because of girls like Haley McDonald's. You can see NRA franchises competing against La Cosa Nostra in the burbclaves. You can imagine Hiro Protagonist sub-contracted by Jennifer Government to fend off Violet ExxonMobil. You wonder how the milieus of these novels aren't linked.

But even if you haven't read Snow Crash, even if you aren't making those comparisons, you will find this one wholly enjoyable. It has an immediate start, thrusts you headlong into the story-already-in-progress but makes sure to catch you up just as quickly. And it never loses this momentum. The chapters coming at you fast (each about 3-5 pages) and are fairly dialogue-driven. Before you know it, you'll find you've burned through 100 pages. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. The narrative draws you in, the prose gets out of the way, and the characters encourage you to get invested.

Borderline 5 star review. There is a whimsy to this tale that draws on a lot of familiar dystopian capitalist tropes (e.g., the libertarian anarchy of free market capitalism run amok); it borders on cliche but doesn't quite cross the frontier into hackneyed territory. That it gets that close, that the prose taps its toes on cliche's fences is where we lose the fifth star in the rating. But that the narrative goes there so unabashedly, in all of its over-the-top banality -- *that* is a beautiful thing.(less)

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Aug 11, 2008

Eric rated it

· review of another edition

I gave this book 2 stars, because I thought it was a good ride, but honestly it's only good at all if you can get past the fact that all of the characters are completely one-dimensional, poorly thought out, do things that are totally unrealistic, and have little to no motivation to do anything but do things that are completely bizarre. Seriously, Hack, the main character if there is one, is like Tess of the D'Urbervilles. He practically sleepwalks his way through the book and then when he grow...more

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Jan 28, 2009

bookczuk rated it

· review of another edition

I was currently reading another book, but stupidly left the iy in the car. It was rainy out, and I was in my jammies. Having no desire to get wet, I pulled Jennifer Government, by Max Barry, off the shelf.

I started reading.

About the author...interesting. Dedication- ok. Two quotes by Thomas Jefferson- nice touch. Then an author's note:

"There are a lot of real company names and trademarks in this book, most in situations you are unlikely to see on the cove...more

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Oct 26, 2011

Jenny Maloney rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, action, dystopian-futures, funny, moral-dilemmas, government, corporations

If McDonalds ruled the world: it would look like this book.

Or, rather, if Nike owned the world.

The Low-Down Dirty:
Welcome to the not-so-far-away future, where everyone is identified by the company they work for. Hence, our trigger-man (in every sense of the word, sort of) is Hack Nike. Hack Nike works for John Nike and John Nike. **No, that wasn't a typo. There are two John Nikes in this book. One is prettier than the other.** John Nike has decided that the greatest mar...more

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Jan 25, 2009

Erin rated it

· review of another edition

Jennifer Government poses the most humorous "future gone wrong" I've encountered in the many of the other books of its kind that I've read. I've kind of been on a dystopian kick lately, and Barry's world of tomorrow isn't quite as grim as some other authors have dreamed up, but there've been some big changes.

First, 75% of the planet is now part of the United States, with only pockets of foreign countries still rooted in democracy and free market. The parts of the world gove...more

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Dec 21, 2008

Barky rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-abe-lincoln-nominee, young-adult-fiction, dystopian, science-fiction, adult-fiction, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Jennifer Government works for the Government in a world where everyone takes their last name from their employer or their school (Hack Nike works for Nike, and Billy NRA joins the National Rifle Association, and Hayley McDonald’s goes to a McDonald’s school). Jennifer is tipped off that there’s going to be a murder when Nike releases its new and hottest shoe, but she fails to catch the perpetrator and gets herself shot in the line of duty. Jennifer, however, is relentless in her pursuit of jus...moreJennifer Government works for the Government in a world where everyone takes their last name from their employer or their school (Hack Nike works for Nike, and Billy NRA joins the National Rifle Association, and Hayley McDonald’s goes to a McDonald’s school). Jennifer is tipped off that there’s going to be a murder when Nike releases its new and hottest shoe, but she fails to catch the perpetrator and gets herself shot in the line of duty. Jennifer, however, is relentless in her pursuit of justice. As soon as she gets funding (she has to apply directly to the parents of the girl who is murdered for the money for her investigation), she makes it her business to prove that Nike is behind the killings.

As it happens, Nike is behind the killings. They hire the mostly clueless Hack Nike to do it, who only realizes later on what it is he’s gotten himself into. When he does realize, he goes to the police, who don’t handle things as you’d expect. They give him two options – he carries out the killings, but they eventually catch him, or they carry them out (a subcontract), and he pays them to do it. Hack goes for option B. Nike comes after Hack and they find out that the police gave the contract to the NRA. Meanwhile, Violet, Hack’s girlfriend manages to get them into more trouble when she kills one of the top Nike businessmen in self defense. Jennifer manages to get her man – John Nike – and stick him with the responsibility for the murders. His ruthlessness is nothing compared to her sense of justice, particularly when she’s already got bone to pick with him (he was once her lover, and is the father of her daughter).

In this possible future greed and brand/corporate loyalty has turned everyone against one another and the only thing that matters is making a profit, and being on the winning side when the chips fall. This is particularly frightening because it’s only a few steps removed from how our society already operates. Just give corporations and big business a bit more power and they will control the world. It’s good to know, though, that there are still a few good people who are willing to work within this structure to bring the bad guys down when their heads get too big for their shoulders and they start thinking they’re invincible. Jennifer Government ends on a very satisfying “got what they deserved” note. This should appeal to readers who like dystopian fiction and imagining what the near future might be like. Lots of action and Jennifer’s investigation keep this moving along at a nice clip.(less)

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Nov 24, 2008

Eh?Eh! rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: babble-added

entertaining. female heroine who kicks a**. frightening future possiblity. your last name is determined by your corporate affiliation. everything is commercialized, even emergency services. if you can't pay you won't be aided...health 'care' is already there in America.

amoral corporate marketing executives concoct a new advertising campaign - create hype by murdering the initial buyers of their new shoe line. other executives, disconnected from real appreciation for human life,...more

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Aug 01, 2008

Jamie rated it

· review of another edition

In some ways, Max Barry's Jennifer Government is like the inverse of Orwell's 1984. It's set in the near future where things have gone loopy, but instead of an out of control, totalitarian government oppressing everyone, it's uncontrollable megacorporations and hypercapitalism (or, one could argue, hyperlibertarianism) that's ruining everyone's day. Unfortunately, Jennifer Government is unlike 1984 in that it's not particularly well written.

The hook, like I said, is that Barry has cr...moreIn some ways, Max Barry's Jennifer Government is like the inverse of Orwell's 1984. It's set in the near future where things have gone loopy, but instead of an out of control, totalitarian government oppressing everyone, it's uncontrollable megacorporations and hypercapitalism (or, one could argue, hyperlibertarianism) that's ruining everyone's day. Unfortunately, Jennifer Government is unlike 1984 in that it's not particularly well written.

The hook, like I said, is that Barry has created a near-future world where capitalism and its slothful cousin consumerism are the defining forces in the free world, to the point where the USA has taken over most of the planet, abolished taxes, moved nearly all traditionally governmental functions like education to the private sector, and yelled "Okay, let 'er rip!" It's the kind of place where McDonald's and Mattell run the grade schools, the police are mercenaries who dispense justice only after your credit card clears, and most of the world's ginormous corporations are banding together into ruthless syndicates centered around competing frequent buyer clubs. The consumer culture is so extreme that one's job is the most important thing in life, so that people do the very improbable thing of taking on their employer's name. So you got among the cast of characters John Nike (two of 'em, in fact), Billy NRA (uh, two of those, also), and one would assume Alice Freeonlinecreditreports.com (but just one of them).

By this you may surmise that the titular character, Jennifer Government, is one of the few people left in the employ of the dwindling public sector. She is, in fact, a law enforcement officer, and one of the last laws that remain in her world is a proscription against murder. So Jennifer gets involved when John Nike and his colleague the other John Nike launch a marketing campaign that involves assassinating 12 of the first youngsters to buy their new sneakers. You know, for the free hype and street cred.

The book jumps around between the points of view of several characters, including Jennifer Government, a suicidal stock broker, an anti-consumerism saboteur, a computer hacker with a screw loose, and the megalomaniacal marketing executive John Nike. But in general it's a tale of revenge and thrills. In fact, Jennifer Government is so obviously cast in the same mold as every rogue cop in every formulistic cop movie you've ever seen that I kept expecting her to fall to her knees, throw her head back, and howl "MEEENNNNDOOOOZZAAAAA!" And then she practically did just that.

The other main problem I had with this book was that the author's hand was WAY too visible in the plot, shoving things this way and that so that they went the way he wanted. There are a lot of threads and characters introduced, which in a way is great because it gives us more points of view into this potentially very interesting world that Barry has created. But what really kind of broke the magic for me was that unlikely coincidences started piling up and the characters started to do very improbable things so that those threads could be twisted together. There are cases of mistaken identity thanks to so many people having the same name but apparently no other way of establishing identity, chance meetings on airplanes and street corners, spontaneous and completely unexplainable romances, and overly convenient job assignments that bring characters together. It feels a lot less like the author is weaving various threads together and a lot more like he's yanking us around by the nose. In other words, it's not that the plot is so contrived, it's that the reader is so aware of it.

This is too bad, because the situation and world that Barry has created has a lot of potential. I wish he had expanded on the book a bit more and had the guts to slow things down a bit so that we got more vignettes and viewpoints about what it's like to live in a world where corporate executives can literally have you killed and get away with it, buying things is a way of life tantamount to religion, and class structures are defined less by race and wealth and more by which frequent buyer's club card you have in your wallet. The role of the media (tv, print, web) in this kind of world was also completely unexplored in the book. The author had some neat ideas going on here, but he seemed less intent on exploring them and more intent on railroading us through a predictable yet ham-fisted crime thriller. Still, it is fun and interesting enough in places that I can mildly recommend it as a kind of quick, entertaining read. It's kind of like a summer blockbuster action movie in book form.(less)

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Feb 09, 2008

Denise rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: good-novels

Max Barry's novel, Jennifer Government, is a wild ride through the near future, when American consumerism and culture have consolidated much of the world under a single American government. People take their surname from the company that the work for, and the unemployed are easily identifiable by their lack of surnames. The novel opens with a bang when a lowly merchandiser, Hack Nike, heads up to a different floor to get some water and meets men in marketing, both named John Nike, at the water ...more

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Nov 26, 2008

Raza Syed rated it

· review of another edition

Max Barry's would-be futuristic satire reads like a failed screenplay, replete with generic action sequences populated with dumb, spiteful characters. Its setting is thinly conceived and curiously dated, as if the hyper-capitalist day-after-tomorrow it presents exists only to excuse the author's unconvincing social speculations. He certainly doesn't seem inspired by the time-shift in any operational way. The novel's views on technology and media are so retrograde that, apart from its improbable ...more

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Sep 30, 2009

Sarah rated it

· review of another edition

So I had to read this one for the Abe award and it reminded me a lot of So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld. I liked Westerfeld's novel, and this was okay, too. Jennifer works for the government, hence the name, and her archenemy is her ex-husband John Nike. Well, one of the John Nike's. I love the characters' names! [return][return]John Nike takes his marketing strategy a little too far and murders a bunch of teenagers as they buy the new Nike Mercury shoes. The marketing works, and sales skyrocke...more

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Dec 01, 2011

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: comic-novel

Jennifer Government is a novel that tries to have its cake and eat it. On the one hand it is an obvious satire on corporate power and greed and the inability of states to control these wayward creatures, on the other the story highlights individuals who by either opposing or aspiring to be major players in this selfish corporatism quite frequently espouse the selfsame macho values that got corporatism where it is. While castigating the whole set-up Max Barry also revels in the rogue survivalist ...more

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Jul 01, 2011

Ilona Andrews added it · review of another edition

Interesting book. A blistering satire on corporate culture, the book is written with a sparse, sharp style. It flies by. I read it while on the plane - I don't enjoy flying - and it took me right out of the shuddering cabin and into the world of corporations, advertisement, and violence.

In the future, corporations rule the world, at least in USA and Commonwealth. Last names are abandoned in favor of employer names: John Nike, Lisa Disney, Michelle McDonalds and so on. Jobs are eve...more

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Jun 24, 2011

D.L. Morrese rated it

· review of another edition

Welcome to Max Barry’s corporate utopia. An alternate world where economic competition rules, where almost every government service is privatized, where corporations operate unfettered by laws or regulations to protect employees or consumers, and where government cannot even investigate a murder unless the victims’ families are willing and able to fund it. It is an almost feudal system in which companies form alliances to gain market share and undermine their competition (to include armed ass...more

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Apr 25, 2011

Pf87 rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, science-fiction

This is fiction, and there's more to fiction (or at least there should be) than relentless polemicism. Narrative is what defines fiction, and here Jennifer Government doesn't fare so well; while Max Barry wants to tell an exciting story as well as show the necessity of taxation and the possible perils of a laissez-faire economy in the 21st century, these dual purposes of the novel feel distinctly separate-but-equal. There are hints of integration-- the setting definitely steers the story at seve...moreThis is fiction, and there's more to fiction (or at least there should be) than relentless polemicism. Narrative is what defines fiction, and here Jennifer Government doesn't fare so well; while Max Barry wants to tell an exciting story as well as show the necessity of taxation and the possible perils of a laissez-faire economy in the 21st century, these dual purposes of the novel feel distinctly separate-but-equal. There are hints of integration-- the setting definitely steers the story at several key points-- but the characters are textbook examples of invented people that begin and end on the page. Their backstories are telegraphed awkwardly, when at all: with the exception of the title character, "So-and-so has been working for such-and-such a corporation for X years and is happy/unhappy, but his/her life is about to be turned upside-down" is really all we get, which is too sparing even when the people in question are intended as everymen. Broad archetypes dominate the proceedings: here's a hero with a cowardly but goodhearted sidekick, there's a cutthroat, over there a schlemiel for good measure. Barry's prose and dialogue is a workable and accessible example of the balance current popular fiction strikes between the matter-of-fact and the enthusiastic, and this is probably for the best.

As commentary though, for what it's worth, I think Jennifer Government is quite good, mostly enjoyable and very funny when it wants to be. Max Barry doesn't overstate anything, is rarely indignant and never insufferable, and most importantly he's aware of the emptiness and irrelevence of most allegory. While his view of the world is certainly not "A = A", describing his approach to critique as "A ≠ B" wouldn't be amiss. Where Orwell and Huxley said "This could be us", Barry cuts out the middleman entirely: "This is us." The future he envisions hardly feels like a future -- it's more like a present that will never end, the consequence of a corporate world becoming a fractured yet effective totalitarian regime to whom change and progress means a decrease in profits, and where competition is so opaque as to be almost cosmic.(less)

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Jan 22, 2011

Nikki S rated it

· review of another edition

In this post-punk dystopia, corporations literally rule the world which has shriveled in size to three markets: USA (“free market”) countries, non-US economic blocs, and fragmented (ie emerging and hostile) markets. This book takes the reasoning of free trade to a logical but horrifying conclusion: a world where kids attend school funded by Mattel and learn about Barbie releases; where employers names their employees; where identity is supplanted by consumer goods.

I enjoyed this book. ...more

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Jan 17, 2011

Larry rated it

· review of another edition

Clever premise, but a very unsatisfying read. In fact I couldn't finish it. It's clever because, in a dystopian near-future, everyone works for a corporation and takes their name based on where they work. I wonder at a big company like Exxon, would all of the Mike's and Mary's be named by their department, like Mike-Marketing-Exxon? What if there are two Mikes in marketing? But anyway. Those who work for the government do so on a contract basis. Everything is outsourced. Even the 911 caller dema...more

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Dec 14, 2010

Bec rated it

· review of another edition

Jennifer Government is a surprisingly light, political read. In a reality that bears more likeness to our own by the second, people's lives are dictated by corporations. Family surnames are a thing of the past, and instead people are named after their job, or the sponsor of their school eg. Jennifer Government or John Nike. Schools are run by Mattel or Macdonalds, and corporations are constantly implementing more extreme marketing techniques to outdo each other and secure sales.

Scarily...more

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Sep 27, 2010

Christopher McKitterick rated it

· review of another edition

I really like this book, which is saying a lot because I read it expecting to be able to put it down in a hurry. A really vicious satire on modern global consumerism, sort of a SPACE MERCHANTS for the 21st century.

The story follows a handful of apparently random characters whose lives meet and part weirdly, in a world where everyone’s last name is the company they currently work for or the corporation running the school they currently attend. Jennifer Government is a Jennifer who wo...more

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Aug 27, 2010

Becky rated it

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In the future no one will want to pay taxes to support the government. Everyone will want all services to be privatized, and they will wear corporate logos to show their brand loyalty. In the future everyone will be a consumer and everything will be a product. In the future there will be artificially created runs on must-have products, and people will be willing to spend outrageously inflated amounts of money on such trivial items as sneakers and molded plastic dolls.

Hey. Wait a ...moreIn the future no one will want to pay taxes to support the government. Everyone will want all services to be privatized, and they will wear corporate logos to show their brand loyalty. In the future everyone will be a consumer and everything will be a product. In the future there will be artificially created runs on must-have products, and people will be willing to spend outrageously inflated amounts of money on such trivial items as sneakers and molded plastic dolls.

Hey. Wait a minute. That sounds suspiciously like the present.

In the not-so-distant future of Max Barry's Jennifer Government multi-national corporations run society. The geo-politico-economic world consists mostly of the United States and its federated economic blocs--Central and South America, the U.K., Russia, Australia and New Zealand, a wee bit of Africa and some of Asia; the non-United States economic blocs--the European Union, some of Asia; and what's left of the rest of the world consists of fragmented markets. The Police, a publicly traded securities firm with a theme song ("Every Breath You Take") that plays on a loop in the lobby, will take up your case for a fee. The Government still exists, and even retains some ideals, such as a belief in basic human rights and the greater good, but is stymied by the fee-based system upon which it runs. Employees like Jennifer Government, derive their surnames from the entity that employs them. No job? No last name.

Jennifer Government--who has her own very good reasons for questioning the corporate structure of society, although they won't be revealed until late in the action--has been assigned to stop several killings at the Nike Town in a local mall. The killings are part of a guerrilla marketing plan designed to heighten interest in the new Nike Mercury. (Although the Government has to charge citizens who've been victims for any investigations conducted into the crime against them, it does have a small budget for the prevention of crime.) Hack Nike, the low level Nike employee to whom the assignment had been given subcontracted it to the Police, who sub-subcontracted it to the NRA, another publicly traded securities firm which consists of a lot of bad-ass dudes. Jennifer Government fails to prevent the crime; the NRA kills fourteen kids instead of the assigned ten, and shoots Jennifer Government in the process.

Boy is she pissed. Jennifer's movements--sometimes officially sanctioned and sometimes not, for she's a bit of a maverick--take her from Melbourne to London to Los Angeles, as she tracks John Nike, the architect of the guerrilla marketing campaign, an increasingly powerful and increasingly nefarious executive. Side plots which follow a loose group of anti-corporate guerrillas, a narcissistic computer hacker, and a suicidal stock broker all come together pretty neatly by novel's end.

Jennifer Government is a good, capably written, often funny, and always thought-provoking dystopian novel. Definitely recommended as a quick, fun read. And don't worry--the meaning of the bar code tattoo is indeed revealed.(less)

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May 24, 2010

Kate rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian-future

To begin with, do not skip the Author's note. It's short and thoroughly fantastic. That's all I have to say about that.

As for the rest of the book - The concept was really interesting. The book is set in a not-too-distant future in which everything has been privatized - government, fire departments, all of it. There is no more taxation, and companies are in complete control - though always at odds with their competitors. Hack Nike (people's last names are determined by what comp...more

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Apr 19, 2010

Ryan rated it

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Shelves: all-time-favourites, sci-fi

I remember reading this when it first came out and really liking it. It had a great Chuck Palahniuk kind of feel to it, some really well-developed characters, and a futuristic world that terrified my inner socialist - one where taxation had been abolished and the government privatized, allowing corporate interests to exert themselves to their fullest authority.

At the same time, though, there were elements of it that seemed somewhat far-fetched. The US government at the time seemed ...more

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Jun 14, 2009

Chelsea rated it

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This book was one of those impulse buys where you're standing around in the store and something about the cover just jumps out at you. I certainly don't regret this purchase. I took a break from my serious non-fiction to read some serious fiction.

The story takes place in the near future, but there's nothing fantastic about the technology or culture. Well, except one little thing: capitalism has run rampant, companies are ganging up against each other like warring states and the gover...moreThis book was one of those impulse buys where you're standing around in the store and something about the cover just jumps out at you. I certainly don't regret this purchase. I took a break from my serious non-fiction to read some serious fiction.

The story takes place in the near future, but there's nothing fantastic about the technology or culture. Well, except one little thing: capitalism has run rampant, companies are ganging up against each other like warring states and the government has been reduced to a largely ignored institution that must beg for money from victims before crimes can be investigated. Author Max Barry has developed a globe mostly consumed by the United States and its territories. Only a few "socialist" European nations still have any sort of taxes and social support structures. Where you work and how much money you make has become of such importance that employees now take their company names as their surname. So our title character, Jennifer Government, is a government agent.

The scary thing about this book is the reality of how close to this sort of society we could quite possibly come. (Minus the surname thing, I think.) I see elements of the behaviors of characters and companies described in this book in the news everyday. It's certainly an eerie read.

As for the story itself: I liked it. It's a fast-paced and well-written cop story, really. The characters are generally well developed (you know they're good when you want to shake them and/or scream at them) and I think that, for the most part, their interactions are true to their characters and to the story. There were only a few plot elements that were a little predictable and a few moments that were pretty clear set-ups. It makes up for those easily with some clever twists that I certainly didn't see coming. The author mentions in the acknowledgments at the end of the story that there was another major character that he decided to cut and I can't help but wonder who and how they fit into the story.

In conclusion, I would recommend it to anyone. Not to mention the cover art is just damn cool.(less)

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Jul 25, 2011

Tori added it

2004- In this story of the near future, American companies have taken over most of the world. You take the last name of your employer. You want a crime solved? You'll get billed directly from the government. In this strange screwed-up world lives the equally messed-up cast of characters including Jennifer Government to Hack Nike to those two John Nikes that I kept confusing! Hack Nike is approached by the John Nikes to sign a contract to help with marketing their new line of sneakers. Only after...more

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Mar 26, 2011

Andreas rated it

· review of another edition

This starts off very well. It is a satire on globalization. The free market is everything and people change their last names to that of the company they work for. Take Mr. Hack Nike, for example. He is hired by the marketing department of Nije to stir up hype for a new line of trainers. The plan is for him to kill a couple of customers in order to give the product “street cred”. He subcontracts the job out to the Police. The government is weak and only handles crime. Jennifer Government is a gov...more

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Dec 07, 2011

Dan Keating rated it

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I think, in retrospect, that reading "Jennifer Government" directly after reading "Brave New World" wasn't the most ingenuous idea possible. Jennifer Government, while depicting a horrifying dystopia like Brave New World, does so for a modern audience. It lacks Brave New World's timelessness and is about as subtle as getting punched in the face, but once you step back from it you realize that's part of it's intelligence.

From the beginning, Jennifer Government seemed...moreI think, in retrospect, that reading "Jennifer Government" directly after reading "Brave New World" wasn't the most ingenuous idea possible. Jennifer Government, while depicting a horrifying dystopia like Brave New World, does so for a modern audience. It lacks Brave New World's timelessness and is about as subtle as getting punched in the face, but once you step back from it you realize that's part of it's intelligence.

From the beginning, Jennifer Government seemed like kind of an immature book. The writing was passable, in the way that contemporary third person novels that mostly eschew style and only commit to slight variations in voice in the narration often are. The ideas seemed a little adolescent - from changing the word capitalism to "capitalizm" to changing peoples' name structures so that each person's last name is the name of the company they work for, Jennifer Government appears thinly veiled. Add in the oft-times comedic stupidity of several of the main characters (in particular, Billy's complete lack of common sense is reinforced in pretty much every passage he appears in) and you have something that feels like it's trying to poke fun more than seriously analyze or satirize.

But what is the primary issue with a world obsessed with profit and corporate consumerism? Infantilization. In order to make people more susceptible the a world without substance, they are made to be more like children. Shades of Brave New World again, only here - rather than a society designed to be unintelligent by the intelligent - Max Barry gives us a world in which even the upper echelons of society have fallen prey to their own anti-intellectualism. The result? Mass stupidity and a prevalence of egregious personality disorders. In particular, main character John's narcissistic personality is way, way overblown - appropriately, given that he lives in a society where that disorder is not only spawned, but encouraged to grow. Indeed, the more involved in himself John is, the more successful he becomes.

The characterization is a bit difficult to pin down. Many of the main characters experience only peripheral changes - Billy in particular comes full circle, managing to get out of the series of events of which he never wanted to be a part at the end, having learned and changed very little. John, too, is a bit of a wash; he's played up as being evil almost beyond comparison, and is left in a situation that is perhaps meant to be satisfying to the reader but ultimately isn't. And Hayley - spolier alert! - dies extremely soon in the novel, which leads me to believe that she was only narrated so that the reader would develop a connection and so feel bad along with Buy when he was unable to save her life - a case of women in refrigerators syndrome for the literary crowd.

Really, though, it is Buy who is the most interesting character in the novel and whose silly incompetency - attempting to kill himself only to realize he couldn't get the gun to fire, and then calling a Government agent to ask her how to get it to fire - is probably the most forgivable; especially as he later admits it was more of a plea for help than an honest call to find out how to work the gun. His journey - from a mild stockbroker to a suicidal incapable of figuring out how he'd cared about his shallow existence to a loving adoptive father - is the most emotional one undertaken in the novel, and while it isn't terribly deep, his story feels the most complete of all the characters in the novel.

And then there's Jennifer herself. Really the problem with her is that there isn't enough of her in the novel. We get snippets of her backstory and find out - spoiler alert again! - that she'd been a successful marketing executive until she'd gotten pregnant and decided she wanted to keep the baby, which the father, John, didn't want to keep. However, we don't actually see any of that - nor do we really see her as the wunderkid marketing executive she had been, nor do we see any of her transformation from said wunderkid marketing executive to the tough-as-nails, throw-the-book-out-the-window, gun wielding Government agent she is throughout the novel. Too much of Jennifer's story is left out of the novel for her to be a truly effective character. She has her moments, but ultimately, this does not feel like her complete story.

Characters aside, the overall theme of Jennifer Government speaks to the idea of de-regulation in a corporate-controlled world - one in which we already live, by the way, but which hasn't grown to the proportions Barry envisions. Ultimately - spoiler alert, one more time! - the various corporations decide that a completely unregulated market doesn't suit them, because without someone to keep people from running around hurting each other all the time there wouldn't be business, just anarchy. Even small government enthusiasts will have to admit a point here - oftentimes, the idea behind reducing or removing the government is that in doing so, society will self-regulate moral judgments, but a society which has abandoned morality for greed and empty consumerism wouldn't self-regulate at all.

In the end, Barry doesn't explore the social repercussions of the novel's events at all. It definitely feels like a more character driven parable and that's reinforced by the lack of exploration of the aftermath - I was left wondering how society and the Government rebound from everything, but there's nothing really to speak to it.

If you're looking for a fun read - Jennifer Government is pretty fun. If you're looking for something universal, look elsewhere - Jennifer Government is pretty firm in it's politics and, despite my statements above, will probably offend the more laissez-faire crowd at some point. And lastly, if you're looking for something deep - you're probably not going to find it here, but if you dig a little you can appreciate what Barry was doing. (less)

· see review

Dec 16, 2011

Robert Kroese rated it

· review of another edition

The jacket describes Jennifer Government as taking place in the "near future." It must be the VERY near future, because technologically the world seems to be stuck in 2003 -- or even earlier. As an example: At one point a stock broker has to borrow a cell phone from another character. Really? I'm pretty sure every stock broker in the world has had a cell phone since 1997.

The only real difference from our world is that the world of JG is dominated by a handful of multinational...more

· see review

Jan 17, 2011

Jacqueline rated it

· review of another edition

The premise behind this book is unbelievably interesting. In a society almost completely controlled by capitalism, Barry gives readers a dystopia on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Orwell's 1984. People get their last names from the companies they work for, and even basic services like the police and emergency services have been privatized. To top it all off, enter Jennifer Government, seemingly-too-awesome-for-her-own-good agent with a barcode tattoo who seeks justice in a societ...more

· see review

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