“Jennifer Government” by Max Barry

Jennifer Government: A Novel

By Max Barry

2003

336 pages / 9 hours and 8 minutes

Fiction

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As I write this, the world has become very strange. In fact, among the more apocalyptic of the literary set, it has become fashionable to say that the day of fiction is gone. What is the point of writing a novel when what is happening in the world is far more unbelievable than any act of the imagination could be? And what of that subset of fiction, the satirical novel? Is it even possible to write satire in a world where the news is already too kooky to be satirized?

Well, I think this perspective overstates the case, so I offer for your approval the Australian satirist Max Barry. Although he has written a couple of more recent books, my favorite is Jennifer Government from 2003. I suppose this already presents a problem since the world is crazier now than it was in 2003. Even so, I think the book holds up surprisingly well and in fact might work even better now than it did originally.

The novel is set in the near distant future, and the subjects of the satire are the domination of corporations and marketing. I am sure you see the problem here. Marketing has become so extreme in our world; how could one possibly satirize it? I thought you would never ask. Corporations have become so dominant in Max Barry’s world that everyone’s last name indicates who they work for. Thus the title.

Now for the marketing scheme, which is revealed in the first few pages, so I’m giving little away. In order to build a buzz for its product, Nike has ordered a series of shootings at the stores selling its new line of athletic shoes. As the Nike marketing executive explains, “We take out ten customers, make it look like ghetto kids, and we got street cred.... I bet we shift our inventory within twenty-four hours.... Talk about edgy.... This defines edgy” (page 5).

How on earth Barry’s living room hasn’t filled up with lawyers from all the companies he skewers, I have no idea. In 2003 when Barry wrote this book, he was 29 years old. I do not know what his long-term intentions or ambitions are, but this book is not going to be one for the ages. What it is, is a highly entertaining piece of social satire. Change the world? I doubt it. There are 86 chapters and a little over 300 pages in the book, and most of the paragraphs are shorter than one of those long sentences from Paul the apostle.

But the novel is, in addition to a great romp with lots of action and mayhem, a reminder that there are a great many people who work for very powerful corporations who are spending their every waking moment trying to figure out how to get you to buy things that, at the moment, you don’t even want. In that regard, Barry’s over-the-top satire, as ridiculous as it may be, does not begin to plumb the dark depths of the targeted marketing tactics that are the specialties of our cyber sellers who would love to be our masters. Maybe it is impossible to do satire today.