Jennifer Government: A Novel [Hardcover]

Max Barry (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 21, 2003

Jennifer Government is Here to Help!

In Max Barry’s twisted, hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly-traded security firms; the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly. It’s a free market paradise!

Hack Nike is a lowly Merchandising Officer who’s not very good at negotiating his salary. So when John Nike and John Nike, executives from the promised land of Marketing, offer him a contract, he signs without reading it. Unfortunately, Hack’s new contract involves shooting teenagers to build up street cred for Nike’s new line of $2,500 sneakers. Scared, Hack goes to The Police, who assume he’s asking for a subcontracting deal and lease the assassinations to the NRA.

Soon Hack finds himself pursued by Jennifer Government, a tough-talking agent with a barcode tattoo under her eye and a rabid determination to nail John Nike (the boss of the other John Nike). In a world where your job title means everything, the most cherished possession is a platinum credit card, and advertising jingles give way to automatic weapons in the fight for market share, Jennifer Government is the consumer watchdog from hell.

Jennifer Government is the kind of novel that can become a byword--a Catch-22 for the New World Order, a satire both broad and pointed, deeply funny and disturbingly on-target.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the horrifying, satirical near future of Max Barry's Jennifer Government, American corporations literally rule the world. Everyone takes his employer's name as his last name; once-autonomous nations as far-flung as Australia belong to the USA; and the National Rifle Association is not just a worldwide corporation, it's a hot, publicly traded stock. Hack Nike, a hapless employee seeking advancement, signs a multipage contract and then reads it. He discovers he's agreed to assassinate kids purchasing Nike's new line of athletic shoes, a stealth marketing maneuver designed to increase sales. And the dreaded government agent Jennifer Government is after him.

Like Steve Aylett, Alexander Besher, Douglas Coupland, Paul Di Filippo, Jim Munroe, Jeff Noon, and Chuck Palahniuk, Max Barry is an author of smartass, punky satire for the late capitalist era. It's a hip and happening field; before publication, Jennifer Government (Barry's second novel) was optioned by Stephen Soderbergh and George Clooney's Section 8 Films for a major motion picture. However, the level of literary accomplishment varies wildly among practitioners, from brilliant (Di Filippo and Palahniuk) to amateurish (Besher). This field is so hot, its writers needn't be nearly as accomplished as they'd have to become to break into any other form of fiction.

That said, like many of his fellow turn-of-the-millennium satirists, Barry is uneven. He has a lively imagination and a sharp eye for the absurdities and offenses of hypercorporate capitalism. But, with its sketchy characters and slow dialogue, Jennifer Government will disappoint anyone who believes the cover copy's grandiose claim that this is "a Catch-22 for the New World Order." --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Free enterprise runs amok in Barry's satirical near-future nightmare: the American government has been privatized and now runs most of the world, including "the Australian Territories of the U.S.A.," where the book is set. American corporations sponsor everything from schools to their employees' identities, and literally go to war with one another. By taking a drink at the wrong water cooler, Hack Nike, a merchandising officer at the athletic shoe company whose name he bears, is coerced into a nefarious marketing plot to raise the demand for Nike's new $2,500 sneakers by shooting teenagers. Hank becomes responsible for the death of hapless teen Hayley McDonald's; he and two top Guerrilla Marketing executives, both named John Nike, are soon pursued by the ruthless Jennifer Government, a former advertising executive who is now a federal agent with a personal ax to grind-and preferably to sink into the cranium of her hated ex, one of the John Nikes. Barry tosses off his anticorporate zingers with relish; his sendup of "capitalizm"-a world where fraud is endemic and nearly everyone (except the French) is a cog in vast wealth-creation machines-has some ingenious touches. The one-joke shtick wears thin, however, and is simply overdone at times ("I'm getting rid of Government, the greatest impediment to business in history," says John. "Yes, some people die. But look at the gain!"). Barry's cartoonish characters and comic book chase scenes don't allow for much psychological subtlety or emotional resonance. Still, if it's no 1984, this breezy, stylish read will amuse the converted and get some provocative conversations going.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385507593
• ISBN-13: 978-0385507592
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (210 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #300,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Max Barry (1973-) is the author of five novels, including "Lexicon," the New York Times Notable Book "Jennifer Government," and "Syrup," now a film starring Amber Heard. He is the creator of the online political simulation game "NationStates," for which he is far more famous among high school students and poli-sci majors than his novels. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and two daughters.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#27 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#70 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#78 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction

#27 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#70 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#78 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A good - but not great - satire of corporate excess. November 24, 2003

By Beeblebrox

Format:Hardcover

Without rehashing the plot points of the book, suffice it to say that finishing "Jennifer Government" made me want more of what I had already read.

Max Barry states on his website that in the final edit, he cut about three-fourths of what he had written for this book, including one major character. After reading Jennifer Government, one wishes that he had not edited it so heavily. The book is a quick read - I finished it in about 5 hours - which is a shame for a novel which deals with such a heavy subject.

Character development is minimal - not surprising in such a relatively short book. True, Hack Nike develops a spine, and Jennifer gets even tougher than she was. But it would have been nice to have seen more.

Some plot points make little sense and/or could be developed better. For instance, why is Hack Nike such a sop? What is Buy Mitsui's background? If the Government is so ineffectual, why was John Nike (the one who didn't get crumpet-toastered) so keen on getting rid of it once and for all?

Also, it would have been interesting to see Barry bring what appeared to be a nascent anti-corporate movement to a bit of closure. The guerilla-style attacks on billboards and McDonald's restaurants seem to do little for plot development except to throw in some routine leftist slogans. I would have enjoyed seeing how this movement would have disrupted (or lent to) the growing intra-corporate battles.

All this aside, the book made me consider my libertarian/free-market principles in a way I had never done before. Science fiction is full of anarcho-capitalist fantasies (viz. L. Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach") which portray such a society as more or less Utopian....

Even Stephenson's "Snow Crash", which is a darker book than "The Probability Broach", doesn't really seem to have a problem with a government-free society. "Jennifer Government", obviously, does. It certainly got me thinking about the proper role of government in society.

Barry claims that this book does not intend to portray a futuristic society, but rather is an alternate history of what could have been. I disagree; some of the geopolitical and corporate changes set forth by Barry could easily happen in my lifetime.

If one looks at the growing dominance of global corporate power - and whatever one's political orientation, one cannot deny that this is occurring - it's not difficult to envision a future in which schools are funded by McDonald's and Mattel, or one in which 911 will not send out an ambulance without guarantee of payment.

I can't be too disappointed with the book. Barry has a fiendish sense of humor and a keen eye for the excesses of corporate America. I look forward to his future novels in the same way that Neil Stephenson's early books made it clear that a great author was about to be born. Read more ›

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Satire of Capitalizm [sic] June 3, 2003

By Christopher Hefele

Format:Hardcover

Jennifer Government was a fun, light, satire of capitalism. It is very plot-driven, and as the novel unfolds you just have to smile at Barry's wry and dystopian view of the future. Privatized governments, frequent flyer programs causing major corporations to form two competing "teams" at war with one another, bar-code tatoos, and other details make the book a clever satire of what Barry calls "capitalizm."

The book itself is organized in very short chapters (2-5 pages each, typically) and Max Barry's prose is a bit plain, but it gets the job done. As I said, the book is very plot-driven, and it moves quickly. The book will be easily adapted to become a big-time blockbuster movie, if it ever comes to that -- it's filled with the requisite shoot-outs, superficial dialogue, an cliche'd characters. But it's all in good fun. Overall, I'd recommend the book as a light summer read. I polished it off on a long plane ride, and it made the trip pass quickly & enjoyably.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the Paperback! February 19, 2003

By K. Bloom

Format:Hardcover

If you've gotten this far in the reviews, you already know the plot to "Jennifer Government", a book well-descended from Kornbluth and Pohl, "The Space Merchants", and striving toward Sheckley's classic "Victim Prime". There aren't a lot of funny science fiction novels in print, and the most successful combine an insightful backdrop with snappy dialog. "Jennifer Government" makes it partway, on both counts. In the novel, the Police and Government are both companies with a certain amount of residual brand loyalty, while the NRA has the best shooters. When the Police want kids shot, they hire the NRA, as opposed to the Government, who, with 20,000 agents in place, seem to be unable to do much of anything competently, including preventing murders that they have advance knowledge of. In order to "solve" the killings, they require advance funding from the victim's family. (Remember the desk sergeant in "Heavy Metal"?) There aren't really any characters to identify with, which doesn't necessarily hurt if you want to make your ideas the funny part---which happens often enough in "Jennifer Government" to make it a worthwhile read, even though you have to get over Your Primitive Desire for a "Plot" of some kind. Thanks to Bob, I have no need for artificial constructs of this kind.

Given Barry's level of wit, as seen on his site maxbarry.com, I expected a lot more from the book than it delivered. There's a lot of cool ideas that don't really go as far as you'd hope, and though that may leave us wanting more (the key to good writing, according to Dickens) we don't want to pay hardcover prices for it. Still, it's worth having this one in your collection, and encouraging worthy Oz writers, so buy the paperback. Look for more from Max Barry, I have a hunch his next will be better yet.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice try... March 16, 2006

By Heather Roade

Format:Paperback

With all the positive reviews this book received I was reminded of the current state of literature after reading it as it's really not that great. A catchy idea, and Max Berry can really write interesting, poppy prose, but the execution of this is as blunt as can be. This book is neither an incisive attack on corporate culture nor is it a cautionary tale with any merit. It's mostly a crass, shoot-em-up - a one-line joke that isn't all that compelling or well researched. Yet I finished it, so go figure. Max should be screenwriter, not a novelist!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars a pleasant and fun read, if not overwhelmingly so September 6, 2003

By B. Capossere TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

With Jennifer Government, Barry steps into the territory of better known traveler William Gibson-that of large multi-national amoral corporations, consumerism/marketing gone amok, personal technology's disorienting effects, etc. It's a world grown familiar to us over the past decade or so, made so by Gibson and others, and this new foray into it bears up fine, if not spectacularly so, in comparison (Gibson's newest, Pattern Recognition, in fact makes a nice companion novel to read with or just after this one)
By the time the novel takes place, the not-so-distant future, all facets of society, from entire countries to single individuals, have been suborned by large conglomerates such as Nike and the NRA. Employees take as their last name their company name (thus John Nike), assassination becomes just another marketing tool, "street cred" is literally to die for, the police subcontract out their work into a bewildering array of contracts and sub-contracts, and the government, while it still exists, is about as powerful as your typical independent bookstore is in comparison to the Barnes and Noble that moved in around the corner.
One of the main characters, Hack Nike, gets involved in the aforementioned assassination and the title character, on the scene at the time, makes it her mission to find him and then those more culpable. The plot is fast-paced, the characters enjoyable, and as a whole the work makes for a pleasant read-laugh-out-loud funny a few times, wryly amusing most times, but with a nice edge to it throughout.... The pace does tend to bog down toward the end, the satire grows a bit heavy and tired, some contrivances of plot mar the last few chapters, and while the lack of background details allows for the quick pace, at times as a reader you wish he would have slowed down a bit to give us a more full vision of the world. Then again, there is room for more of Jennifer, so perhaps we'll get a more fleshed out vision in a later book. You won't be blown away by this book, and if you're one of those reader who does a chapter or two a night then you might be tempted to give it up toward the end, but stay with it; you'll surprise yourself by thinking of it now and then later on while watching a new commercial or reading another article on media consolidation. Read more ›