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Jennifer Government

by Max Barry (Goodreads Author)

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 6,460 ratings · 629 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published January 21st 2003 by Doubleday (first published October 17th 2002)

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Mar 24, 2011 Jessie rated it 1 of 5 stars · 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 4 of 5 stars · 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 give...more

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Feb 25, 2009 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars 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...more 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 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 2 of 5 stars · 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 grows...more

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Jan 28, 2009 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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 covers of any annual reports. That's because...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Jenny Maloney rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 marketing scheme of all time...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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 governed by the US are und...more

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Dec 21, 2008 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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 justi...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars · 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, see it as "proact...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Jamie rated it 2 of 5 stars · 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 created a near...more 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 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 3 of 5 stars · 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 c...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Raza Syed rated it 1 of 5 stars · 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 3 of 5 stars · 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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Jan 11, 2013 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started this book once or twice, and decided to add it to this year's book challenge. I just now finished it, and I have thoughts about it.

I liked the way Barry used his characters to drive the story. It reminded me a little bit of Big Trouble (the movie. I haven't read the book). He starts with these seemingly disparate characters and then throws them all into a roiling pot of conspiracies, assassination and kidnapping.

I've often heard as a person having a "cinematic" writing style, but I th...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Jocelyn Mantakul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought that Jennifer Government was an all around good book. It started off with a character named Nike, however that is is his last name. His first name is Hack. All of the characters I noticed had a corporation for their last name. Like one girls name was Haley but her last name was named McDonald. This was because she went to a school named McDonald. And of course Jennifer, her last name is Government because she works for the government. I thought that, that was very clever of Max Berry....more

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Sep 13, 2012 Aaron Sobel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

1)Jennifer Government is about big corporations running people. People in the book take the last names of the company they work for. The book was about a person named Hack and he worked for Nike. Hack Nike was ordered to kill people over the release of a new Nike shoe so it can gain popularity, but Hack contracts his contract to the police to do it for him. Jennifer Government, who works for the government, has to try to find out who is the reason for the killings.

2)I gave this book 3 stars beca...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Jo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: corporate-satire

I approached the reading of Jennifer Government in much the same way that I’d approach an ice-cream sundae – a great deal of anticipation, coupled with the knowledge that once I’ve finished it, it will all be over. So I kept the book sitting next to my bed in my pile of “to be read” books for quite some time before finally giving in and hurling myself into it.

The story is set in a future, where the USA has taken control of the majority of the developed world, including the UK, parts of Asia, Aus...more I approached the reading of Jennifer Government in much the same way that I’d approach an ice-cream sundae – a great deal of anticipation, coupled with the knowledge that once I’ve finished it, it will all be over. So I kept the book sitting next to my bed in my pile of “to be read” books for quite some time before finally giving in and hurling myself into it.

The story is set in a future, where the USA has taken control of the majority of the developed world, including the UK, parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. All of these countries fall under US control – therefore, there isn’t any need for international trading. Capitalizm is the new political structure, which is essentially rule-by-corporation, with taxation abolished and the public sector privatised. The Government no longer has any power other than the prevention of crime and, budget withstanding, punishment of criminals. The Police is a private law enforcement and mercenary company, Ambulances are only provided for sick or injured parties once payment has been made, and welfare of all kinds has been abolished.

In this world of corporate-rule, all citizens take their surnames from the company for which they work. Some of the main characters in the story are Jennifer Government (she works for the Government), Hack Nike (he works for Nike), Billy NRA (he works for the NRA), etc…. You get the picture. This naming extends all the way to children, who are given a surname based on the school they attend – each one funded by a particular corporation (Mattel and McDonald’s schools are specifically mentioned.).

The story follows the results of a marketing-campaign-gone-insane. John Nike, VP of Guerilla Marketing, develops a campaign that will allow Nike to sell the new Nike Mercury sneakers for $2500 a pair, despite them only costing pennies to manufacture. The key element of this campaign is simple: Increase demand by having teenagers who purchase the Nike Mercury’s assassinated for their shoes.

To this end, John Nike tricks one of his subordinates, Hack Nike, into signing a contract agreeing to do the assassinating. When Hack realises what’s going on, he immediately goes to the police, who helpfully offer to do the assassinations for him, for a fee. This sets off a chain of events that leads to Jennifer Government being assigned to bring down John Nike, and prevent an all-out war between rival corporations.

I absolutely loved Jennifer Government. It brought back memories of playing the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG as a teenager – hacking into corporate databases, sneaking past gun-toting corporate mercenaries, and waiting for the sudden but inevitable betrayal from the corp who hired the group. All while wearing mirrorshades. Especially at night.

Jennifer Government as a story is definitely Corporate Satire rather than Cyberpunk, but the setting could be either. And, to be perfectly honest, as much as I enjoyed the story, Max Barry’s well realised setting, established without the need for a “data dump” at any point, is what really impressed and entertained me.
(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Jason Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I finished up Max Barry’s Company and decided I’d go back in time and re-read JG as well. I called Company “corporate cubicle fiction” so I guess JG is "corporate overthrow fiction," for want of a better term. Barry takes the idea of the corporation as a world-changing force of nature and pursues it to a logical (and therefore, ironically, absurd) conclusion, where governments are pushed to the side as corporations and the countries they represent start to merge. Capitalism as nightmare, without...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars · 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 everything. Hack N...more

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Jun 24, 2011 D.L. Morrese rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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 assaul...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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. I thought...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Bec rated it 4 of 5 stars · 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 enough, t...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Christopher McKitterick rated it 4 of 5 stars · 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 works for the...more

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May 24, 2010 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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 company they work for...more

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Apr 19, 2010 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 to be growing...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Chelsea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 government has be...more 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 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 · review of another edition

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 2 of 5 stars · 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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Sep 14, 2012 Dianna rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a bit of a soft spot for dystopias, apocalypses and post-apocalypses. Plagues too, I love a good plague, it's all very comforting to know there are these nice fictional places where everything's gone wrong, most people are dead, lots of people are either being chased by zombies, or forced to compete in death matches, or being psychologically tortured by some sort of powerful organisation or entity.

What sets them apart, according to the people who write and critique dystopia etc fiction, i...more I have a bit of a soft spot for dystopias, apocalypses and post-apocalypses. Plagues too, I love a good plague, it's all very comforting to know there are these nice fictional places where everything's gone wrong, most people are dead, lots of people are either being chased by zombies, or forced to compete in death matches, or being psychologically tortured by some sort of powerful organisation or entity.

What sets them apart, according to the people who write and critique dystopia etc fiction, is that they are the dark mirror of the present, or allegory, or whatever it's called when someone is trying to either persuade you that things could be a lot worse than they are, or that they are actually a lot worse right now and you're being stupid to not notice it. The strongest elements in the dystopia etc fiction book must be the concept. In 'Jennifer Government,' we get a dystopian world ruled by corporations and Capitalism Gone Mad, which is neat, and at least different to dystopian worlds where it's Government Gone Mad, but the problem is that the book is rubbish.

For the plot, in fact for the world itself to work, you have to accept Barry's premise that all people are idiots all the time, and that successful people are both idiotic and evil. Of course you should be able to do whatever you like in fiction, and if you're a writer I'm sure it's a lot easier if all your characters are clearly idiots, because you never have to worry that a reader might demand some explanation of why they don't make any sense.

The most evil character in the book, John Nike, is evil because. This is another easy default position - he's in marketing, he's wealthy, he works for a big corporation, therefore he has no conscience. All the characters are like this, and the only way that you can get away with asking your readers to just make up the characters for you, based on name and job description, is if you also offer them a super-interesting plot or a stunningly funny writing style.

The plot settles itself into a lengthy chase scene pretty early in the book. The end-game requires diverse characters to exchange key pieces of information at critical points so they can work out what’s going on and defeat the villain in time. What is often used to make an ending feel satisfyingly tense and complex, just feels forced and contrived here.

At times, I could sense Barry twitchily feeling his way towards a combination of ideas and an arrangement of words that he intended to be amusing, and my lip would curl in a devastatingly elegant sneer. All Billy NRA wanted was to go skiing. Instead, he becomes embroiled in a deadly game of mistaken identity and blah blah blah. Much of the novel is set in Australia, and Australia is a naturally funny place, although there were no kangaroos, which is a glaring humour omission. Crumpet toasters. French people. Japanese people speaking English. All of these are inherently amusing, and yet all their freshness and sparkle cannot save Barry's prose.

It's all lazy. It's a book that's half an idea, with half-characters and a half-hearted attempt to be clever.
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“Companies were getting a lot tougher on labor contracts these days; Hack had heard stories. At Adidas, if you quit your job and your replacement wasn't as competent, they sued you for lost profits.” — 3 people liked it

“Fifteen years ago, this would have been insider trading, but that quaint concept had disappeared a decade or two ago when so many brokers were doing it that it was impossible to jail them all. Now it was called smart trading.” — 1 person liked it

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