Price war

I've just finished Max Barry's 'Jennifer Government', which came highly recommended by Kenny of Parallax View - here's the SWSL verdict...

The novel is a satire about the corporatisation of the world (unsurprisingly, the publishers have slapped Naomi Klein's glowing recommendation of the book on the front cover - it answers the inevitable call for fiction which takes the likes of 'No Logo' and 'The Silent Takeover' as a starting point). Set in the not-too-distant future, Barry's novel depicts a world in which everyone bears their employer's name as their surname, in which the National Rifle Association is a paramilitary organisation, and in which even the Police have corporate affiliations. Corporations join forces, offering loyalty points to consumers who remain faithful to their particular conglomerate. The two super-corporations US Alliance and Team Advantage, driven by pure profit-lust, are prepared to launch military offensives against the other - this after Nike's marketing men hit on the idea of shooting teenagers with the aim of making their trainers more desirable. The eponymous heroine is a Government agent assigned the task of preventing things getting out of control.

There's plenty that can be said against 'Jennifer Government'. As there's little to admire in the way of style or craftsmanship, I read it as a novel of ideas, but despite the subject matter it comes across at times like a disappointingly no-brain thriller - a book like Ballard's 'Super-Cannes' trumps it on both fronts. Some of the touches are just too obvious and smug (the Nike executive who's impaled on the sharp swoosh doorhandle of a Nike Town store, for example), and the book comes to a saccharine neat everything-tied-up sort of ending in which Jennifer prevails and the "baddie" John Nike gets his comeuppance, discovering he isn't above the law after all.

Nevertheless, despite my reservations, as a fast-paced high-octane romp it's an engaging read - and, as a vision of the future, it is, I suspect, worringly accurate. Our world and the world of the book are not as far apart as some people might like to think.