Review: "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry

"Jennifer Government" is a brilliant, fast-paced, hilarious satire by Australian author and former Hewlett-Packard employee Max Barry. The book illustrates a world controlled by American corporations: where the Police and the NRA are publicly-owned corporations, McDonald's runs the school system, people change their last name to that of their employee and Nike has a bigger budget than the US Government.

The book kicks off with Hack Nike, a Nike Merchandizing Officer who's suddenly offered a job in Marketing. The catch? The job is to kill ten customers to create a buzz for Nike's latest product: the six-thousand dollar Nike Mercuries. It then shoots off into about five different storylines: Jennifer Government, Buy Mitsui, Bill NRA, Victoria, and Hack Nike, each of which has a established character. Don't worry about discord between the storylines, because Max Barry ties them together with the skill of brilliant author.

Max Barry's writing in the book is excellent. He manages to convey a huge amount through a small amount of words... a scene that might take a different author a page to describe takes Barry a paragraph. Cutting through the book is a jagged line of satire that takes a swing at corporations and the corporate lifestyle, and it works. This book is one of the best I've read, and I've read a few. Max Barry is definitely a top-notch author with a huge future ahead. Read Jennifer Government today.