Max Barry

A brilliant satire on globalization and marketing hype. In the future, the world will be run by giant American corporations. Everybody will be so happy, tax-free and rich that they will loyally change their name to that of their company. Which is where Hack Nike comes in. Hack s career is going nowhere fast. In the future, this is not a good thing. So when John Nike and John Nike offer Hack Nike a job marketing a new line of really, really expensive trainers he is understandably thrilled. Until, that is, he discovers his duties include establishing street cred for these shoes by shooting teenagers... Described by Naomi Klein as brilliant and hilarious , Jennifer Government is a wickedly funny thriller for the No Logo generation; a funny, fast-paced and ferocious satire on globalization and capitalism.

Jennifer Government

In Max Barry's twisted, hilarious and terrifying vision of the near future, the world is run by giant corporations and employees take the last names of the companies they work for. It's a globalised, ultra-capitalist free market paradise! Hack Nike is a lowly merchandising officer who's not very good at negotiating his salary. So when John Nike and John Nike, executives from the promised land of Marketing, offer him a contract, he signs without reading it. Unfortunately, Hack's new contract involves shooting teenagers to build up street cred for Nike's new line of $2,500 trainers. Hack goes to the police - but they assume that he's asking for a subcontracting deal and lease the assassination to the more experienced NRA. Enter Jennifer Government, a tough-talking agent with a barcode tattoo under her eye and a personal problem with John Nike (the boss of the other John Nike). And a gun. Hack is about to find out what it really means to mess with market forces.

quite hard to follow at points with all the narrative shifts but maybe that’s part of the point. a bit depressing given today’s climate but a fun read nonetheless!

jacq bridge

Sarah Escorsa

Jennifer Government maths:












➽ This is one of my favourite books EVER and I don't give a fishing damn if:

① Some people say it's overhyped and overrated.

② Some people say it's predictable.

③ Some people say it's pure, badly written crap.

④ Some people say all the characters in the story are stupid, flat and unlikeable.

➽ And I certainly don't give a fishing damn about the book snobs who compare this book to the supposed greatness of novels written by Huxley, Orwell, Stephenson and the like. The reverse book snob in me happens to think all these authors are greatly overrrrrrrated. I'd rather reread The Duke and I than have to go through Snow Crash or Brave New World again. But hey, I'm clueless enough to think Jennifer Government is one of the coolest books ever, so what the shrimp do I know?



➽ And the moral of this crappy non-review is: love this book, hate this book, judge this book, I don't give a fishing damn. It is and forever will be pure delicious awesomeness to me. Ha.





[Pre-review nonsense]

· Question: Is this still one of the coolest books I've ever read?
· Answer:



➽ Crappy non-review to come. In 2025. Or whenever I don't find the time to write it.

dead line

Man, if I had written this book in 2002, I wonder if I'd be laughing or crying right now.

Deeply cynical about how the need for profit makes people single-minded, even at the cost of human life. Cynical about how the system has winners and losers, and if you're not trying to win you're losing. Even cynicism about what any opposition to the system can achieve.

But for all its cynicism, I don't think the author could bring himself to fully embrace the darkness. There's humour written in every absurd event, and moments of joy for certain characters.

I think I love this because it's a simple 'What if': What if we extrapolate out the profit motive. Well we get a company directly killing people because they conclude causing a few deaths would bring in more money. In the book it's Nike doing it, but in 2021 it's Facebook facilitating a genocide in Myanmar.

Prescient.

Jennifer Government

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