Rob's review of Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government Jennifer Government
by Max Barry
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Rob's review  
rating: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
bookshelves: 2008
recommended for: "Can I get a Diet Stephenson, please?"
status: Read in March, 2008

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 comparis...more
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