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Summary: Great fun!
Review: I found Jennifer Government not only a commentary of our times, but quirky and entertaining fun! I would gladly recommend this one to anyone. Like your humor mixed with thought provoking scenarios? Here's a book for you!
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Summary: What a fantastic book!
Review: This is the only book I've read where, upon finishing it for the first time, I went back and started it again! (For the record, though, I've read Neuromancer by William Gibson back to back a few times) The premise of the book is very interesting, and Barry's prose is witty and polished. I didn't like how the book was broken up into such small sections (some as small as two paragraphs, but on average a page or so), but that still didn't detract from my enjoyment.For best results, read Naomi Klein's _No Logo_ immediately before this one! I highly recommend this one!
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Summary: When a friend of mine mentioned Jennifer Government
Review: I'll have to admit that when a friend of mine first mentioned Jennifer Government, a book that sounded like it was about politics did not seem all that interesting. However, I discovered that I was sorely mistaken and I enjoyed it immensely. Once I opened it, the fast-paced plot had me hooked into a cutthroat world of suspense and conspiracy. Overall, Jennifer Government is an excellent book that you will find difficult to put down.
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Summary: Heavy on premise, lite on execution
Review: This review was posted originally on NadaMucho.com, a webzine dedicated to bringing you fiction from all walks... If the recent spate of reality television shows has shown us anything, it's that the only thing Americans love more than acting stupid is watching other Americans act stupid. Following in a close third is that great American pastime of talking about Americans acting stupid. America is a snake feeding on its own tail. Australian author Max Barry marries American-spawned media mutual masturbation with an ever-popular target of satire - corporate culture - to bring forth "Jennifer Government", a novel set in a parallel, anti-Orwellian world where governments have little or no power, and corporations do almost as they please. Barry, a former marketing man himself, knows his way around corporate culture. He also clearly knows marketing, because the book itself, as an object, seems created solely to be sold. The target is a large market niche - nearly everyone has either worked for or patronized a large corporation. Huge corporate scandals break on a weekly basis. Because the book plays the media's favorite game, it was bound to get (and did get) wide critical acclaim. As the novel relies almost exclusively on plot, a synopsis is in order. In keeping with the theme of the book, here are the premise/tag-lines from the marketing material provided by the publisher:
"Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is the consumer watchdog from hell." There you have it. Any doubt that these main characters' paths will cross at least once or twice, eventually careening together at the conclusion of the book? Me neither. We know where we're going, so the focus is the trip. "Jennifer Government" is fast paced but takes far too long to tell its story - things keep happening, and you can't help but wonder if some editing might not have sharpened the book's edge. Barry's writing is "cinematic" in style, which is not necessarily a bad thing, except that the movie seems to be one we've seen before. From the initial action scene, wherein Government (are you tired of the kitschy last names yet?) engages in guns-a-blazin', flyin'-through-broken-glass, Bruckheimer style action, to plot lines and dialog that seem ripped straight from prime time TV drama, the novel fails to deliver on several levels. Worse, Barry tries to throw a critical block by implementing the modern crutch of self-effacing humor: At one point Jennifer Government tells Billy NRA that the story he just related (which we read in a previous chapter), is completely unbelievable. Towards the end of the book, a cliché bit of action is immediately followed by the phrase "it was just like a movie". This sort of wink-wink, nudge-nudge "Hey it's just a silly, made up story" not only insults authors and readers, but especially the poor sucker who just forked out good money for the book. It's writing of the laziest sort. This lack of seriousness, along with the author's scant storytelling ability, ultimately becomes the book's undoing. A handful of well written scenes amongst the 320 pages hint at what could've been, but by the time a sleazy Nike executive is impaled on the Swoosh door-handle of a Nike town amidst a marketing war gone bad (OH! THE IRONY!), you're about ready to throw the book out the window. Barry offers no sort of earnest dialog on one of the most important social issues of the day (corporate proliferation) and as such the book doesn't aspire to scratch beyond the surface. Like a first-rate marketing campaign, "Jennifer Government" doesn't want to bring anything new to the table, but is content to merely feast upon and regurgitate pop culture in an attempt to make light of the shallowness of modern society. "Aren't we all just so stupid?" it seems to ask. Maybe - and it's a worthwhile question. Here's one for Barry: "Does this book make you part of the problem or part of the solution?"
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, but flawed
Review: What would happen if corporations ran the world? If governments became privatized, taxes were abolished, and employees took the surname of the companies they worked for? This is the intriguing premise of Max Barry's JENNIFER GOVERNMENT. When Hack Nike, Merchandising Officer for the Nike Corporation, signs a contract without first reading it, all he cares about is getting a promotion. What he doesn't realize is that he's just agreed to murder ten Nike customers. The Vice-President of Marketing thinks that killing ten people as they walk out of the store with the newest, hottest shoe will drive up demand, and therefore make the company a fortune. As Hack tries to find a way to escape having to carry out the contract (he ends up subcontracting it to the Police), he encounters Jennifer Government, a single mother who wants nothing more than to find the VP of Nike's Marketing and put him behind bars. As it turns out, they go way back. Max Barry takes an intriguing premise and writes... well, a screenplay. The fast-paced action scenes and snappy dialogue are better suited to the big screen than the novel format. As a result, characterization suffers. The plight of the characters never becomes interesting enough to make me care what happens to them. Sure, the world Barry has created is fascinating, even terrifying, but ultimately, does it really matter? Not when the people we're supposed to care about come across as nothing more than corporate pawns. Jennifer Government is the only one of the main characters who at least gets some semblance of a real life. The scenes with her eight-year-old daughter, Kate, are heartwarming and beautifully written, and they made me wish that Barry had paid the same kind of attention to his other main characters. It's obvious he has the imagination and the skill to pull off a great work of fiction, unfortunately, JENNIFER GOVERNMENT doesn't quite make it to that level. Read it if you're looking for some quick reading, but don't expect any earth-shattering revelations into the state of our society.
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Summary: A Hilarious Portrayal Of An All-Too-Possible Future
Review: Jennifer Government is hilarious. The fact that Barry takes corporate maneuvering to a war-like level makes a mockery of everything sacred in today's capitalist world. The writing is simple enough that anyone, even a 1-year-old like myself, can enjoy it. But the sad thing we must remember is that Barry is trying to make a point here. And while you may laugh while reading it, those of you who forget about it afterwords are missing the message. Oh, sure, we'll all say we agree with him, but when it really comes down to it, will we be willing to do something to stop what he talks about from happening? I know, I know, what he describes will not really happen anytime soon. Or maybe even ever. But that's becuase it's an exaggeration, to make the theme easier to understand. What is happening today, and will continue to happen, is the constant conglomeration of more and more companies into huge competing bodies like the US Allience in Jennifer Government. And one of the most important things on the agenda of companies today is how to get kids passionate about their products. Not just saying, "I like Nike shoes, so I buy them," but getting them to fight for their product, like the vigilantes in baggy pants from Jennifer Government. So, do we like this book? Sure. But if we sit back and ignore his words after we finish it, then he has truly failed.
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Summary: It is a fun simple read!
Review: I will not go over the plot since it is covered rather well. This book is a fun fluff type read! Max does a great job at creating good characters! The evil power hungry capitalist, the strong female hero who seeks good or is it revenge?, the poor dumb shmuck with a brilliant psycho girl friend, the looser who gets caught up in things. Each character gets his end! Most fitting is the end of the evil capitalist! Max has a wicked sense of humor and makes good use of it to poke fun at American business. Finally, the barcode tatoo on the cover does get explained in the book!
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Summary: Great Look Into Corporate America's Future
Review: This is a provacative book that catches your attention immediately. What happens when the government's power shifts to corporate america? Read this book to find out.
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Summary: Funniest Good Novel I've Read In Years!
Review: Everything logofied and privatized in our global village/company town is deliciously creamed by this satire, which is probably the best skewering yet of the "law and economics" school of thought, in novel form. Some scenes are hilariously exaggerated versions of the near-future, while others seemed rather ordinary present-day episodes. And then it hits me, how seamlessly the two go together in "Jennifer Government". Many of the seemingly plausible events are frightening, precisely because many of the frightening scenarios are so plausible... If you despair sometimes when you read about Cipro this or Halliburton that, this story will actually lighten your mood and make you laugh aloud, which I rarely do when I read other novels of literary merit. It also has the virtue of being an amazingly fast read, even for a deliberate reader like myself. If you haven't read this book, I recommend you check out the New York Times Book site and read the first chapter.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than Gibson's Pattern Recognition ...
Review: ... but that's not saying much. The plot is somewhat chaotic and meandering. The characters are somewhat thinly drawn. But the dialogue is crisp, and the story is interesting. The story isn't that tight, but it does come to a decent conclusion with most loose threads taken care of, which is a lot more than I can say about Gibson's Pattern Recognition. Worth a read, but not spectacular.
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