Book Review: Jennifer Government
Jun. 17th, 2003 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
addersljRemember that game Nation States that everybody was crazy about back at new year? Well, it was all set up to promote a book called Jennifer Government, and I finally got around to reading it.
Barry has crafted an amusing and worrying satire, but one which is not particularly thought-provoking. The novel is set in a world which is a logical extrapolation of current corporate America, where Government is a withered stump of its current self and corporation hold most of the power over people's day-to-day lives. People's surnames spring from their employers (Hack Nike and Jennifer Government, for example), while children are named after the sponsor of their school (Hayley McDonalds and Kate Mattel).
Barry takes this environment and creates a fast-paced and compelling story about loyalty schemes gone mad and the dangers of the corporate world. It's not an anti-corporate tirade, thankfully, but an interesting examination of the relationship between consumers, corporates and government. It's just a shame that all the best ideas are in the first half of the book. The set-up is interesting, but Barry never really explores the depths and complexities of the system he's created. Sure, it's a satire, but it's an obvious and rather superficial one. In that sense, it feels more like a crowd-pleasing movie than a novel. Curiously enough, it's been optioned for just that purpose...
Still, the story rattles on at a cracking pace and Barry's writing is engaging, if slightly clumsy in places. You notice that the new ideas have stopped coming, but dammit, you do want to know what happens. However, Barry's major weakness is his ability (or lack of it) to define his characters. None of the characters in the novel come over as being truly real. They are little more than ciphers who exist for the convenience of the plot. Radical changes in characters are never explained, and few of them are given any motivations or background bar what's necessary for the plot. The women in particular seem to act more like men wish they would act than the way they actually do when it comes to romance and sex.
Still, the plot is strong enough that this doesn't matter. You keep reading to find out what happens, not what happens to particular people. The initial ideas and storytelling are strong enough to make it work.
A damn good read, but not without some significant flaws.
Barry has crafted an amusing and worrying satire, but one which is not particularly thought-provoking. The novel is set in a world which is a logical extrapolation of current corporate America, where Government is a withered stump of its current self and corporation hold most of the power over people's day-to-day lives. People's surnames spring from their employers (Hack Nike and Jennifer Government, for example), while children are named after the sponsor of their school (Hayley McDonalds and Kate Mattel).
Barry takes this environment and creates a fast-paced and compelling story about loyalty schemes gone mad and the dangers of the corporate world. It's not an anti-corporate tirade, thankfully, but an interesting examination of the relationship between consumers, corporates and government. It's just a shame that all the best ideas are in the first half of the book. The set-up is interesting, but Barry never really explores the depths and complexities of the system he's created. Sure, it's a satire, but it's an obvious and rather superficial one. In that sense, it feels more like a crowd-pleasing movie than a novel. Curiously enough, it's been optioned for just that purpose...
Still, the story rattles on at a cracking pace and Barry's writing is engaging, if slightly clumsy in places. You notice that the new ideas have stopped coming, but dammit, you do want to know what happens. However, Barry's major weakness is his ability (or lack of it) to define his characters. None of the characters in the novel come over as being truly real. They are little more than ciphers who exist for the convenience of the plot. Radical changes in characters are never explained, and few of them are given any motivations or background bar what's necessary for the plot. The women in particular seem to act more like men wish they would act than the way they actually do when it comes to romance and sex.
Still, the plot is strong enough that this doesn't matter. You keep reading to find out what happens, not what happens to particular people. The initial ideas and storytelling are strong enough to make it work.
A damn good read, but not without some significant flaws.
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Date: 2003-06-17 04:43 am (UTC)I definetly agree about the depth of the book...I read it as a Jerry Bruckheimer novel. I read it like the mind candy it was. It was zany fun. (I really enjoyed the pokes at activist groups as well :-))