Jennifer Government [B1313]

2004 PB with some wear. A wickedly satirical and outrageous Sci-Fi, dystopian thriller about globalization and marketing hype, Jennifer Government is the best novel in the world ever. "Funny and clever.... A kind of ad-world version of Dr. Strangelove.... [Barry] unleashes enough wit and surprise to make his story a total blast."-The New York Times Book Review. "Wicked and wonderful.... [It] does just about everything right.... Fast-moving, funny, involving."-The Washington Post Book World.

Taxation has been abolished, the government has been privatized, and employees take the surname of the company they work for. It's a brave new corporate world, but you don't want to be caught without a platinum credit card--as lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneakers by shooting customers, Hack attracts the barcode-tattooed eye of the legendary Jennifer Government. A stressed-out single mom, corporate watchdog, and government agent who has to rustle up funding before she's allowed to fight crime, Jennifer Government is holding a closing down sale--and everything must go.

From very recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Loved this book. Don't always pick science-fiction or fantasy-type storylines, but this was great and was a completely new concept fiction. Really enjoyed it - and have ordered two of his other books"; "his book was Crazy but funny and good satire. Except the satire doesn't feel that off in our current dystopian Hell . ."; "At first I was deterred by the clunky and simple writing style but as the story progressed it felt intentional, adding to the superficiality of the commercialized world. This world really sucks (not the world building) and I hate that it's not too far off how sh**ty our own world is becoming. The pace picks up quick and doesn't stop til the end. The casual violence and nonchalant attitudes toward murder is frightening. The characters are fairly one dimensional but I don't feel like this was meant to be a very character driven story."; "Unfortunately current. This was a quick read, but an entertaining thriller for me. I think it really underlines some of the potential issues with making everything private. It could've used a stronger edit I think, there were some copy-editing issues, particularly with dialogue that made it a little hard to follow, but I am still glad to have read this, and it is deeply troubling how familiar some of the things outlined in this dystopia are to what we have currently."