Jennifer Government

By: Max Barry

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The irreverent author of the cult classic Syrup hits his target in this satire on the wages of big capital. In Max Barry's hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations, and employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly traded security firms, and the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly. When lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike unwittingly signs a contract that involves shooting teenagers to build up street credibility for Nike's new line of $2,500 sneakers, he goes to The Police, only to be pursued by Jennifer Government, a tough-talking agent with a bar-code tattoo under her eye, the consumer watchdog from hell.

©2003 Max Barry (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Wicked and wonderful....[It] does just about everything right. Fast-moving, funny, and involving." (The Washington Post Book World)
"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)

timeless story told in a fresh style

Engaging characters in a fast-paced narrative. Clever interwoven stories that resolved spectacularly. Storyline gives us an entertaining yet all too believable perspective on what societies would be like in a global marketplace run by America.

Wonderfully original!

This is my second book by Max Barry. The other was Lexicon. Both are original ideas, have well developed characters and interesting twists. I've purchased a third of his books.

One of my very favorite books….

A fantastic rendition of an exceptional book! Still not as good as reading it yourself, but certainly worth a listen if you haven’t got time or access to the physical copy.

Not bad...

Jennifer Government was an entertaining listen, though a bit predictable at times. The slant contributed to the predictibility; corporations bad, NRA bad, etc... Not that there's anything terrible about that, but it'd be more interesting to see an unexpected target as "the villain" in a satire like this for a change. But within the scope of what it tries to be, Jennifer Government is fun... but not as funny as I had hoped.

Not quite snow crash but good.

Not since Snow Crash has there been such an engaging Outta Whack Near Future World. When everyman Hack Nike Blunders into a plot by the two John Nikes to boost the sales by Killing Consumers. Hack Struggles with not only The Two John's but, his ambitous Girlfriend, and the Book's namesake who is running from her own past finds a deep rooted personal reason to at first bust Hack and then Bring down the John, but not without personal cost. a good listen and the Narrator does an adequate job of invoking the
emotions and inflections of each individual character(though he tries too hard for the female voices) but well worth the value.

Enjoyed it

I found this book very entertaining. It was fast-paced enough that it wasn't overly marred by being somewhat predictable. I didn't really find the book terribly funny, perhaps for the same reason I don't find Dilbert all that funny: it hits a little too close to home. A number of reviewers have compared the book unfavorably to Stephenson's Snow Crash, but I don't see them as being all that similar. Jennifer Govt is much more focused on the "capitalism gone overboard" concept, which was just one of many ideas touched on in Snow Crash (which, while fun, was not terribly focused). Also, I have to disagree with the reviwers complaining about the narration, which I I thought was good. All in all, I wouldn't classify Jennifer Govt as great art, but it was a fun read that I'd recommend.

good story

narrator was good and read well. missed and messed up a couple words from the book. But it was read good and wouldn't mind the narrator reading another story.

The GOP wish list comes alive ...

If you wanna glimpse the future of life in a GOP driven America where everything is free market this is it. What I like about this story is even they become obsolete. A great satire but a good wakeup call. This moves right along and wastes no time.

pretty good

I enjoyed the reader and I liked the world that was presented. Like many stories they float around a small group of characters bumping into eachother. But this was done well.

I enjoyed this book

Crazy story with amazing narration

The narration was great and definitely added a flair to the story that was very much appreciated. The various voices the narrator gave each character helped with keeping track of the many characters in the story. Highly recommended.