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Jennifer Government is a book set in the not-too-distant future. It's not a future of flying cars, genetic manipulation or alien life forms though. This future is much closer to home, with much in common with the landscape of today. What has changed is that governments have become increasingly weak while large corporations have become more powerful. In this future, just about everything, from the police and the military to schools, have been privatized. There is no tax, and the government deal only with crime prevention so cannot pursue or punish offenders unless someone is willing to pay for the cost. People have dropped surnames and simply append their current employer onto their forename. It may not sound like a particularly awe-inspiring vision of things to come, but it isn't too hard to imagine.
The book begins in Australia, which has confusingly become a territory of the USA. It focuses on seven different characters whose paths inevitably intertwine throughout the course of the novel. Hack Nike is a low-level employee dealing with sending out merchandise. Violet is Hacks unemployed girlfriend (hence the lack of a company name after her forename) who is developing a computer program in the hope of selling it. John Nike is the vice president of Guerrilla Marketing. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker who hasn't quite met his quota for this year. Billy Bechtel inspected steel plates for tanks until the company downsized. And Jennifer Government is a government agent with a young daughter, Kate (Kate Mattell to be precise, since she goes to a Mattell school).
Everything kicks off with John Nikes revolutionary new marketing campaign for the latest high-end trainers, Mercurys. A chance meeting between Hack & John Nike results in Hack being recruited help with the campaign. Unfortunately for Hack, it involves murdering teenagers who have bought a pair of Mercurys and stealing them so it looks like they've been killed for the trainers. This will, of course, increase their street-cred, making them more desirable. So Hack does what anyone in this situation would do; he out-sources the dirty work.
The series of events that follow lead to increasing hostilities between the two big loyalty groups, U.S. Alliance and Team Advantage. Each loyalty group has only one top corporation from every major industry sector and each company will only deal with others from their own group. The hostilities threaten what little power the government has left and could boil over into an all-out war.
The novel is written in broadly chronological order, but each chapter generally focuses on one of the main characters so sometimes there are multiple chapters dealing with some of the same events, but from a different perspective. This isn't particularly difficult to keep track of, but early on in the book you are quickly introduced to a lot of different characters, and you may forget exactly who each one is before another chapter dealing with them crops up. Though once you get to know them the book flows very well, and it's interesting to discover how all the characters paths eventually cross.
Jennifer is a likeable protagonist, and her character does grow during the plot. John Nike is the villain of the story, and although he's the kind of person you'll love to hate, he is also very much a person in tune with his environment. His speech defending his actions when support for him is wavering shows this, arguing that he has put a price on human life, but so has every other company whether it is creating cars that some people will crash and die in, or manufacturing drugs that can induce fatal reactions, or even selling guns. The rest of the characters act as a good supporting cast; there are some cute moments involving Kate, and of particular interest is Hack coming to hate not only Nike, but the consumerist society he is a part of.
There's plenty of dark humour here. The initial premise seems to have been based on reality, where have been mugged and killed for expensive trainers, presumably because the attacker couldn't afford them or perhaps to sell them on. Most of the wry humour though is derived from the ultra-capitalist society, for example after being shot and falling off a balcony onto a Mercedes, Jennifer receives an E-mail from the legal department asking her to justify why the damage to the car was unavoidable in the line of duty to which she sends a sarcastic response. And when Hack tells the police about the contract he signed (without reading) requiring him to kill some teenagers, the sergeant offers the polices services to carry out the slayings, and at a competitive rate too!
Unfortunately some of the things described in this future world are not a million miles away from the modern day, though obviously amplified by a hefty factor. Schools in the USA have long had corporate sponsors, and industry sponsored academies in the UK are now a government approved strategy, essentially privatising some education. Marketing hasn't reached the heady heights of murder, but it is creeping ever deeper into our lives and sub-consciousnesses. But don't worry, these issues aren't force-fed to you, and the story stands on its own as a worthwhile tale. As the plot unfolds there aren't really any major twists (there is a pretty predictable minor twist though), but there is a good flow despite the jumping between characters and locales.
Jennifer Government isn't a vastly long novel, and it sucked me in so I finished it in under a week, but it's a great read and I picked it up very cheaply second-hand. I would recommend this book to just about anyone, and if you've read Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' you'll no doubt find this a fun read that deals with some similar issues in a light-hearted and wry fashion.
The book begins in Australia, which has confusingly become a territory of the USA. It focuses on seven different characters whose paths inevitably intertwine throughout the course of the novel. Hack Nike is a low-level employee dealing with sending out merchandise. Violet is Hacks unemployed girlfriend (hence the lack of a company name after her forename) who is developing a computer program in the hope of selling it. John Nike is the vice president of Guerrilla Marketing. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker who hasn't quite met his quota for this year. Billy Bechtel inspected steel plates for tanks until the company downsized. And Jennifer Government is a government agent with a young daughter, Kate (Kate Mattell to be precise, since she goes to a Mattell school).
Everything kicks off with John Nikes revolutionary new marketing campaign for the latest high-end trainers, Mercurys. A chance meeting between Hack & John Nike results in Hack being recruited help with the campaign. Unfortunately for Hack, it involves murdering teenagers who have bought a pair of Mercurys and stealing them so it looks like they've been killed for the trainers. This will, of course, increase their street-cred, making them more desirable. So Hack does what anyone in this situation would do; he out-sources the dirty work.
The series of events that follow lead to increasing hostilities between the two big loyalty groups, U.S. Alliance and Team Advantage. Each loyalty group has only one top corporation from every major industry sector and each company will only deal with others from their own group. The hostilities threaten what little power the government has left and could boil over into an all-out war.
The novel is written in broadly chronological order, but each chapter generally focuses on one of the main characters so sometimes there are multiple chapters dealing with some of the same events, but from a different perspective. This isn't particularly difficult to keep track of, but early on in the book you are quickly introduced to a lot of different characters, and you may forget exactly who each one is before another chapter dealing with them crops up. Though once you get to know them the book flows very well, and it's interesting to discover how all the characters paths eventually cross.
Jennifer is a likeable protagonist, and her character does grow during the plot. John Nike is the villain of the story, and although he's the kind of person you'll love to hate, he is also very much a person in tune with his environment. His speech defending his actions when support for him is wavering shows this, arguing that he has put a price on human life, but so has every other company whether it is creating cars that some people will crash and die in, or manufacturing drugs that can induce fatal reactions, or even selling guns. The rest of the characters act as a good supporting cast; there are some cute moments involving Kate, and of particular interest is Hack coming to hate not only Nike, but the consumerist society he is a part of.
There's plenty of dark humour here. The initial premise seems to have been based on reality, where have been mugged and killed for expensive trainers, presumably because the attacker couldn't afford them or perhaps to sell them on. Most of the wry humour though is derived from the ultra-capitalist society, for example after being shot and falling off a balcony onto a Mercedes, Jennifer receives an E-mail from the legal department asking her to justify why the damage to the car was unavoidable in the line of duty to which she sends a sarcastic response. And when Hack tells the police about the contract he signed (without reading) requiring him to kill some teenagers, the sergeant offers the polices services to carry out the slayings, and at a competitive rate too!
Unfortunately some of the things described in this future world are not a million miles away from the modern day, though obviously amplified by a hefty factor. Schools in the USA have long had corporate sponsors, and industry sponsored academies in the UK are now a government approved strategy, essentially privatising some education. Marketing hasn't reached the heady heights of murder, but it is creeping ever deeper into our lives and sub-consciousnesses. But don't worry, these issues aren't force-fed to you, and the story stands on its own as a worthwhile tale. As the plot unfolds there aren't really any major twists (there is a pretty predictable minor twist though), but there is a good flow despite the jumping between characters and locales.
Jennifer Government isn't a vastly long novel, and it sucked me in so I finished it in under a week, but it's a great read and I picked it up very cheaply second-hand. I would recommend this book to just about anyone, and if you've read Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' you'll no doubt find this a fun read that deals with some similar issues in a light-hearted and wry fashion.
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Jennifer Government is a book set in the not-too-distant future. It's not a future of flying cars, genetic manipulation or alien life forms though. This future is much closer to home, with much in common with the landscape of today. What has changed is that governments have become increasingly weak while large corporations have become more powerful. In this future, just about everything, from the police and the military to schools, have been privatized. There is no tax, and the government deal only with crime prevention so cannot pursue or punish offenders unless someone is willing to pay for the cost. People have dropped surnames and simply append their current employer onto their forename. It may not sound like a particularly awe-inspiring vision of things to come, but it isn't too hard to imagine.
The book begins in Australia, which has confusingly become a territory of the USA. It focuses on seven different characters whose paths inevitably intertwine throughout the course of the novel. Hack Nike is a low-level employee dealing with sending out merchandise. Violet is Hacks unemployed girlfriend (hence the lack of a company name after her forename) who is developing a computer program in the hope of selling it. John Nike is the vice president of Guerrilla Marketing. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker who hasn't quite met his quota for this year. Billy Bechtel inspected steel plates for tanks until the company downsized. And Jennifer Government is a government agent with a young daughter, Kate (Kate Mattell to be precise, since she goes to a Mattell school).
Everything kicks off with John Nikes revolutionary new marketing campaign for the latest high-end trainers, Mercurys. A chance meeting between Hack & John Nike results in Hack being recruited help with the campaign. Unfortunately for Hack, it involves murdering teenagers who have bought a pair of Mercurys and stealing them so it looks like they've been killed for the trainers. This will, of course, increase their street-cred, making them more desirable. So Hack does what anyone in this situation would do; he out-sources the dirty work.
The series of events that follow lead to increasing hostilities between the two big loyalty groups, U.S. Alliance and Team Advantage. Each loyalty group has only one top corporation from every major industry sector and each company will only deal with others from their own group. The hostilities threaten what little power the government has left and could boil over into an all-out war.
The novel is written in broadly chronological order, but each chapter generally focuses on one of the main characters so sometimes there are multiple chapters dealing with some of the same events, but from a different perspective. This isn't particularly difficult to keep track of, but early on in the book you are quickly introduced to a lot of different characters, and you may forget exactly who each one is before another chapter dealing with them crops up. Though once you get to know them the book flows very well, and it's interesting to discover how all the characters paths eventually cross.
Jennifer is a likeable protagonist, and her character does grow during the plot. John Nike is the villain of the story, and although he's the kind of person you'll love to hate, he is also very much a person in tune with his environment. His speech defending his actions when support for him is wavering shows this, arguing that he has put a price on human life, but so has every other company whether it is creating cars that some people will crash and die in, or manufacturing drugs that can induce fatal reactions, or even selling guns. The rest of the characters act as a good supporting cast; there are some cute moments involving Kate, and of particular interest is Hack coming to hate not only Nike, but the consumerist society he is a part of.
There's plenty of dark humour here. The initial premise seems to have been based on reality, where have been mugged and killed for expensive trainers, presumably because the attacker couldn't afford them or perhaps to sell them on. Most of the wry humour though is derived from the ultra-capitalist society, for example after being shot and falling off a balcony onto a Mercedes, Jennifer receives an E-mail from the legal department asking her to justify why the damage to the car was unavoidable in the line of duty to which she sends a sarcastic response. And when Hack tells the police about the contract he signed (without reading) requiring him to kill some teenagers, the sergeant offers the polices services to carry out the slayings, and at a competitive rate too!
Unfortunately some of the things described in this future world are not a million miles away from the modern day, though obviously amplified by a hefty factor. Schools in the USA have long had corporate sponsors, and industry sponsored academies in the UK are now a government approved strategy, essentially privatising some education. Marketing hasn't reached the heady heights of murder, but it is creeping ever deeper into our lives and sub-consciousnesses. But don't worry, these issues aren't force-fed to you, and the story stands on its own as a worthwhile tale. As the plot unfolds there aren't really any major twists (there is a pretty predictable minor twist though), but there is a good flow despite the jumping between characters and locales.
Jennifer Government isn't a vastly long novel, and it sucked me in so I finished it in under a week, but it's a great read and I picked it up very cheaply second-hand. I would recommend this book to just about anyone, and if you've read Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' you'll no doubt find this a fun read that deals with some similar issues in a light-hearted and wry fashion.
The book begins in Australia, which has confusingly become a territory of the USA. It focuses on seven different characters whose paths inevitably intertwine throughout the course of the novel. Hack Nike is a low-level employee dealing with sending out merchandise. Violet is Hacks unemployed girlfriend (hence the lack of a company name after her forename) who is developing a computer program in the hope of selling it. John Nike is the vice president of Guerrilla Marketing. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker who hasn't quite met his quota for this year. Billy Bechtel inspected steel plates for tanks until the company downsized. And Jennifer Government is a government agent with a young daughter, Kate (Kate Mattell to be precise, since she goes to a Mattell school).
Everything kicks off with John Nikes revolutionary new marketing campaign for the latest high-end trainers, Mercurys. A chance meeting between Hack & John Nike results in Hack being recruited help with the campaign. Unfortunately for Hack, it involves murdering teenagers who have bought a pair of Mercurys and stealing them so it looks like they've been killed for the trainers. This will, of course, increase their street-cred, making them more desirable. So Hack does what anyone in this situation would do; he out-sources the dirty work.
The series of events that follow lead to increasing hostilities between the two big loyalty groups, U.S. Alliance and Team Advantage. Each loyalty group has only one top corporation from every major industry sector and each company will only deal with others from their own group. The hostilities threaten what little power the government has left and could boil over into an all-out war.
The novel is written in broadly chronological order, but each chapter generally focuses on one of the main characters so sometimes there are multiple chapters dealing with some of the same events, but from a different perspective. This isn't particularly difficult to keep track of, but early on in the book you are quickly introduced to a lot of different characters, and you may forget exactly who each one is before another chapter dealing with them crops up. Though once you get to know them the book flows very well, and it's interesting to discover how all the characters paths eventually cross.
Jennifer is a likeable protagonist, and her character does grow during the plot. John Nike is the villain of the story, and although he's the kind of person you'll love to hate, he is also very much a person in tune with his environment. His speech defending his actions when support for him is wavering shows this, arguing that he has put a price on human life, but so has every other company whether it is creating cars that some people will crash and die in, or manufacturing drugs that can induce fatal reactions, or even selling guns. The rest of the characters act as a good supporting cast; there are some cute moments involving Kate, and of particular interest is Hack coming to hate not only Nike, but the consumerist society he is a part of.
There's plenty of dark humour here. The initial premise seems to have been based on reality, where have been mugged and killed for expensive trainers, presumably because the attacker couldn't afford them or perhaps to sell them on. Most of the wry humour though is derived from the ultra-capitalist society, for example after being shot and falling off a balcony onto a Mercedes, Jennifer receives an E-mail from the legal department asking her to justify why the damage to the car was unavoidable in the line of duty to which she sends a sarcastic response. And when Hack tells the police about the contract he signed (without reading) requiring him to kill some teenagers, the sergeant offers the polices services to carry out the slayings, and at a competitive rate too!
Unfortunately some of the things described in this future world are not a million miles away from the modern day, though obviously amplified by a hefty factor. Schools in the USA have long had corporate sponsors, and industry sponsored academies in the UK are now a government approved strategy, essentially privatising some education. Marketing hasn't reached the heady heights of murder, but it is creeping ever deeper into our lives and sub-consciousnesses. But don't worry, these issues aren't force-fed to you, and the story stands on its own as a worthwhile tale. As the plot unfolds there aren't really any major twists (there is a pretty predictable minor twist though), but there is a good flow despite the jumping between characters and locales.
Jennifer Government isn't a vastly long novel, and it sucked me in so I finished it in under a week, but it's a great read and I picked it up very cheaply second-hand. I would recommend this book to just about anyone, and if you've read Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' you'll no doubt find this a fun read that deals with some similar issues in a light-hearted and wry fashion.