Boomsday

By: Christopher Buckley

Narrated by: Janeane Garofalo

Length: 10 hrs and 18 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)

I wish Buckley picked lottery numbers!

I just listened to this and the similarities between the events in the book and the 2008 election coverage on tv is eerie: the US economy is tanking and I swear I saw an ad about a euthanasia bill.
Garofalo does a great job narrating. Her intonations make it easy to tell whose talking and she's just serious enough to make the (maybe not quite so) farfetched ideas work.
Overall this book is just plain fun.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

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!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

A thought-provoking hoot

This book was a riot. I'm the furthest thing from a political junky, but found this look at DC hi-jinks great fun. At the same time, the book really makes you think about the government mortgaging our future, agism and messaging to the masses.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

America's

Janeane Garofalo reads the tale of a brilliant brat who joins the military, becomes a national figure riding through a minefield with a U. S. Senator, and as a public relations guru, offers a most remarkable solution to the dilemna of funding baby boomers' retirement entitlements.

The story is light, occasionally ill-informed (the Social Security Admininstration building is in Woodlawn MD, not D.C., after all) but full of energy and imagination. As with most of Buckley's work, the destination is just an excuse for the ride. Very entertaining stuff.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Very Funny

Buckley has written another hilarious book. It is witty, intelligent, and full of laughs. Garafalo is fantastic with the narration. This is a comedy after all, so picking a comedienne who can time the jokes and lines properly was a essential.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

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.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Light fun on a long drive

Not terribly sophisticated plot or characters but it was fun to listen to. It was good enough that I will try another of Buckley's books. Garofallo's representation of characters isn't the best but still tolerable. I would hesitate to purchase another read by her, though.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Hilarious

Satirical, cynical and very funny. Well worth listening to.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great fun

An amusing - sometimes hilarious - approach to the political and economic impact of my generation - the Boomers. The narration is fabulous.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful