Boomsday

A Novel

By: Christopher Buckley

Narrated by: Janeane Garofalo

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In Boomsday, Christopher Buckley envisions the nation's next brouhaha: generational warfare between Baby Boomers and younger Americans who don't want to be stuck paying the Social Security bill - a conflict that provokes the most outlandish presidential campaign ever.

Cassandra Devine, a straight-A student, was like any other 17-year-old Yale hopeful, until she was forced to join the Army because her father spent her tuition money on a dotcom start-up. Years later, Cassandra has become a Washington spin doctor and blogger who rails against the "Un-greatest" generation's mishandling of Social Security debt. When she learns that her father remarried and bought his dim-witted son's way into Yale, she suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by age 75.

This proposal catches on with outraged citizens and a senator seeking the youth vote for his presidential bid. With the help of Washington's greatest PR strategist, Cassandra and the senator try to ride the issue of euthanasia to the White House. Their opposition includes the president, who's running for reelection; a pro-life preacher, who may have killed his mother; and of course, Baby Boomers.

©2007 Christopher Taylor Buckley (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"This satire combines the serious and the ridiculous with dead-on aplomb." (The New York Times)
"The humor is wicked and the satire incisive." (Boston Herald)

Buckley's a winner

This was my first foray into the mind of Buckley and I'm going back for more. I laughed various parts of my anatomy off and highly recommend you don't follow my example of listening to it on an airplane. I loved the author's play on names, such as the President who's last name is "Peachum". Unlike other reviewers, I thoroughly enjoyed Janine Garofalo's reading - her voice impressions were part of the hilarity for me. Sorry, if you don't find yourself stealing the phrase "STFU" for your very own by the time this book is over, you need an EKG to make sure there's still life in your body!

Not bad

Funny book. The subject matter is closer to fact then fiction. We are giving our country away to special interest groups and ignoring our real problems. I felt it dragged a bit and had an ending that was rushed.

Very funny

Great audio quality. Great narration. Kept me entertained with typical Buckley humor.

not his best effort

I enjoy Buckley's books very much, but I struggled to get all the way through this one. It didn't seem as tightly knit as his previous books and became rather boring and repetitive. It also had a rather strident quality about it, possibly due to the delivery of the narrator. That being said, there are very funny bits, and the narrator does a superb job of uniquely voicing all the characters.

Janeane made this a delight!

If you could sum up Boomsday in three words, what would they be?

Funny and compelling!

What other book might you compare Boomsday to and why?

Thank You for Smoking.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any scene that resulted in Garofalo "doing a voice" for a character. Buckley's books are hysterical in a dry, sometimes droll manner. Garofalo was a perfect choice for this novel. When compared to all my previous experiences with narrated works, I have to credit her with enhancing the novel's humor...not a small accomplishment. I so wish she did more narrations!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

LAUGH!!!

Buckley esposes a problem without aparent solution

William F. Buckley, Christopher Buckley's father was the supposed father of modern conservatism. Apparently the only thing that William taught his son was that modern bible thumping is slightly out of place in modern America and you should try to "spin" any problem into three different stages which are: controversy, compromised acceptance, and then ignoring that the problem is still a problem. These are in fact the separate stages of the plot.

As for the Heroine of our novel, she just becomes another modern libertarian freedom advocate that makes a small political splash about an ideal, that Ayn Rand wrote about, and then disappears into the mists of bureaucracy.

It is surprising that although the main heroine claims to "love" Rand she shows little emulation of the things that Rand stood for which seemingly are in short supply in out society these days. Things like integrity, honesty, strong will, and a lack of compromise on the issue of one's morals. She capitulates in the book several times even toward the end of the book letting her father off of the hook instead of blowing wide open the scandal on the software used in Gideon Payne's retirement communities.

The solution no matter how harsh it may sound, is to make people pay for their own retirement. Apparently not even the conservatives in this country can understand this fact. The government should never have set up a social security program in the first place. I am of course sorry for all of those people who paid in expecting a larger payout and expecting that government means providing for your life in old age. Buckley tries to find much more evil ways to solve the problem of social security and I am afraid that this will also be the course of political events to come unless people realize that the only path that should be taken under capitalism is self reliance.

A for effort

This is not Christopher Buckley's best effort, but you might like it. In my opinion it rambles on and on with out advancing the plot at all.

Not Amused

The book takes some interesting pokes at our political system but it's disjointed and pointless in my opinion.

I found it a chore to get through. This is a rare case where the movie would be better than the book.

Wait for the movie.

Disappointing

I very much enjoyed some of Christopher Buckley's earlier books. They are original and funny. Boomsday was disappointing. The premise is clever but the book has only occasional moments of humor and the characters are mostly unoriginal caricatures.

Janeane is great. Chris Buckley is tired.

This audiobook is mildly amusing for a while. Janeane Garofalo is multitalented and very funny. She lifts the material briefly, before it becomes just another political report from Our Nation's Capital, a place which bores me unto death. Satirizing the political landscape of this country is like shooting fish in a barrel. Chris Buckley sounds at this point as if he could use a change of venue, but he's stuck with his own, and his father's, success. He knows no other topic, and so he is milking this one until the cow flops over. The political parties are corrupt, the politicians ruthless liars who sell their souls for large company cash: duh. Anyone old enough to remember James Buckley can recall a grouchy but very witty man, a conservative with principles, a man who knew that brevity was the soul of wit. It seems that he forgot to teach his son this truth. The book, like Chris's other novels, is essentially a very extended one trick pony. You will find no surprises. If you like hearing something you've heard over and over again, then enjoy. For the rest of you, save your money and your time. Even Janeane sounds bored by the third or fourth chapter.