Jennifer Government: A Novel [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio CD)

by Max Barry (Author), Patrick Frederic (Reader)

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
The most unnerving thing about Max (formerly Maxx) Barry's new novel is that its hyperbolic vision of the not too distant future doesn't seem too far out there at all. The world is run by giant corporations who literally go to war with one another; Australia and the U.K. are annexes of the United States; the police are for sale to the highest bidder; and employees take the last name of their employers. Thus, the cast of characters includes John Nike, Georgia Saints Nike (she volunteers at the Church of Latter-Day Saints), Billy NRA, Buy Mitsui, Hayley McDonalds, and so forth. Jennifer Government, a former advertising executive turned government agent, is hot on the trail of the villainous John Nike for murder. As the mastermind of the latest Nike campaign, he planned the murder of 14 teenagers in order to build up the street reputation for Nike's new $2,500 sneaker, Mercurys. Frederick's reading of this wacked-out morality play is first-rate. His obvious enjoyment of the satire fuels his performance. Especially entertaining are his stereotypical foreign accents, which would seem out of place under most circumstances, but they fit the comic book-type characters waging chaos in this saga like an Aris glove.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739302361
• ISBN-13: 978-0739302361
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (186 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,247,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	K. Bloom "[e-mail]" (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jennifer Government: A Novel (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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marketing in the near future (4-1/2 stars), March 13, 2003

By	Steve Sanderson (Long Island NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jennifer Government: A Novel (Hardcover)

Hack Nike, Haley McDonalds, Jennifer Government. You're given the name of the firm you work for; your allegiance is more to the company than to your country (which is really just a series of companies anyway). When unemployed you have no last name. Jennifer Government, Maxx Barry's second book after the equally well-written Syrup, is a fun fast read, interweaving different characters and points of view. I just loved the book and devoured it in a few days, then went and read Syrup. Now, the only bad part is that I have to wait for Mr. Barry to write another one.

The book can give you bouts of paranoia when you think how close we are to living like the characters in the book. It certainly made me want to stay away from brand named foods and clothing for a while....

There's no profit in the game as far as I know, so including this link shouldn't be a problem, should it...

7 of 7 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 (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jennifer Government: A Novel (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.