loosie: words: Book Review: "Jennifer Government"

Book Review: "Jennifer Government"

Max Barry creates a predictable world of hyper-consumerism with hopes of being Orwellian.

by B.D. | 2003.02.06

Max Barry’s “Jennifer Government” describes a world completely overrun by laissez-fair economics and capitalist greed: employees take their company’s name as a surname (Barry Doubleday), children attend schools founded by toy companies, thugs roam the streets with corporate logo tattoos and human lives are strictly viewed as cost-effectiveness equations. Any government interference in commerce is viewed as an infringement on the rights of business interests.

Hack Nike is asked by his devilish bosses to orchestrate the murder of several inner-city teenagers in order to pump up street buzz for their latest line of $3,000 per pair sneakers. A fearful little underling, Hack outsources the execution of the deadly marketing plan to the police, who in turn hire the NRA to do the dirty work. The cold-blooded shopping mall killings eventually bring in a host of other characters including Buy Mitsui, a suicidal stockbroker; Billy NRA, a vagabond sharpshooter; and Jennifer Government, the crusading federali with a barcode tattoo on her cheek. They all eventually end up waist-deep in a raging corporate feud between monstrous conglomerates. The story is fairly predictable: lovers turn enemies, babies get kidnapped and lots of machine guns spray bullets -- all en route to a Hollywood ending.

Barry seems to wear his influences on his sleeve. A bit of “Fight Club”, a bit of “The Matrix”, a bit of “Ad-Busters”. And, as with many ideology-gone-haywire novels, “Jennifer Government” leans heavily upon “1984” as a template. Hack is a cubicle-dwelling version of Winston Smith. US Advantage and Team Alliance, two all-powerful corporate unions, replace the omniscient eyes of Big Brother. “Jennifer Government” just swaps unchecked totalitarianism with unchecked capitalism. It’s a nifty concept, and Barry shows some gustiness by using the names of such real-life companies as Nike, Mattel and Pepsi. But much of the exposition is superficial. Executives are one-dimensionally evil; citizens are sheep-like morons. Where Orwell conjured up a dreary environment of spirit-crushing over-governance, Barry doesn’t create a world so different from ours. That’s the point, of course – and we get it. But, as “Jennifer Government” describes it, life under hyper-capitalism just isn’t that frightening.

Perhaps it is because of his Australian heritage, but much of “Jennifer Government” seems written by someone who just happened to catch the CNN updates on a few tales of American corporate misconduct. Ideas such as primary school-sanctioned advertising and ghetto sneaker shootings are ripped straight from the headlines. Barry’s descriptions of cities such as Dallas and Los Angeles are unconvincing. The threat of American economic imperialism is certainly real, but Barry’s descriptions of their ingressions are painfully cliché – “oh, fuckity-fuck, McDonalds and Starbucks are invading Australia.” The brilliance of "1984" is that it was truly prophetic -- "Jennifer Government" is a futuristic novel based on rehashing the past and present.

For anyone literate in the vocabulary of globalization and international economics, Barry offers little in the way of new dialogue. His novel is well intentioned, but he never really twists his story into much more than a simplistic tale of reckless corporate greed. If you’re a smug capitalist piggie, “Jennifer Government” will probably make you consider the flaws of the system for a few seconds. For everyone else, Barry is just preaching to the choir.