Boomsday
by Christopher Buckley
Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher BuckleyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-02
ISBN: 0446579815
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Twelve
Book Reviews of Boomsday
Book Review: A work of art
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's see...Hmm...How can you explain that a book about "incentivising suicide" and "US political campaigns" is not just "fun" but the most hilarious thing you've read in ages? Those words rarely appear in the same sentence, but this book is unfortunately just that: an ingenious tale of spin doctors and radical cost-cutting suggestions that are beautifully simple while somewhat unappealing to many, namely that when you hit age 75, poof, you politely go off to ki11 yourself and "do your bit" to help out the country's ailing welfare system.
Once I'd managed to get over the general plot, I was left trying to justify some of the more outlandish characters in this book. Cassandra Devine is a 20-something living in Washington who spin-doctors by day, and blogs by night. Her route into this job took her by way of Yale (almost), Bosnia (briefly), a Senate office (unappealingly) and a minefield (unfortunately) but despite her unconventional CV, she is a well settled, productive member of a DC based PR company. Randy Jepperson is a senator from the great state of Massachusetts, who lost a leg in that same minefield, and now has his heart set on a seat in the Oval office, a feat he plans to accomplish by some outlandish statements (telling the current president to "Shut the **** up" live on national TV, for example) and some even more outlandish actions (taking off his prosthesis during speeches and shaking it for dramatic effect, for example).
When Cassandra and Jepperson team up to take on the White House with an outrageous solution to the mounting social security debt, the aforementioned incentivising suicide bid, their main opposition comes in the shape of Gideon Payne, a dubious member of the Religious Right who may, or may not, have killed his mother on the sly, and the current president of the United States, a hapless character who is a mere puppet in the hands of his aides, and whose similarity to a certain current president appears far from coincidental.
There are lots of "stories within stories" in this book. Cassandra's family history is brought to the fore when her estranged father, newly loaded, buys himself a spot in the president's inner circle. Her relationship with the senator is a frequent cause for speculation among the press, including what they were doing in the minefield and why they were there in a minefield in the first place. Terry, her mentor and manager at the communications firm is a lovable rogue who could spin his way out of any tangled web, while others' credentials come under scrutiny when their business affairs are uncovered and they have to jiggle the resulting mess, including justifying their own cashing-in-on-the-dying strategies while publicly denouncing Cass's, ongoing campaigns for a monument to foetuses, and a newly discovered and somewhat uncomfortable new longing for ladies of the night. You couldn't make this stuff up.
What I really, really liked about this book was the lack of loose ends by the epilogue. As the story progresses more and more new facts and relationships are discovered, and the resulting web of who knows whom, who is in league with whom, who is genetically related to whom is convoluted but not too confusing. And yet, you imagine that somewhere along the way a few of these facts with fade away in an open-ended way, or disappear quite without thought, leaving you to wonder what happened there. This simply doesn't happen in this book, and I'm struggling to think of a single thread to this very well woven story that wasn't carried on and explained to a suitable conclusion.
Some might think the themes in this book are tasteless, that the characters and the situations in which they find themselves are despicable, disgusting or downright dreadful, but I'm afraid to say I thought it was a brilliant read. The ideas might not be to everyone's liking, (though I would say, far from sick and twisted, I found them inspired and motivating), but the writing itself is a work of art!! I would also like to recommend Tino Georgiou's bestselling novel--The Fates--if you haven't read it yet!
Children's Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Okinawan Library Godsends
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club)by Carson McCullers
Mariner; Published: 2004-04-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.74
Price in other shops:
White Noise (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)by Don DeLillo
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
Ghost World: The Special Editionby Daniel Clowes
Fantagraphics Books; Published: 2008-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.36
Price in other shops:
Foucault's Pendulumby Umberto Eco
Mariner Books; Published: 2007-03-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
The History of Love: A Novelby Nicole Krauss
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2006-05-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.35
Price in other shops:
Birds Without Wingsby Louis de Berni?res
Vintage; Published: 2005-06-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.45
Price in other shops:
The Strangerby Albert Camus
Hesperides Press; Published: 2006-11-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.84
Price in other shops:
The Things They Carriedby Tim O'Brien
Bantam Dell Pub Group; Published: 1999-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Lolita (Everyman's Library (Cloth))by Vladimir Nabokov
Everyman's Library; Published: 1993-03-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.00
Price in other shops:
Watership Down: A Novelby Richard Adams
Scribner; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Resurrection Dayby Brendan DuBois
Jove; Published: 2000-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $69.94
Hartsburg, USA: A Novelby David Mizner
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2007-08-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops:
The Last Debateby Jim Lehrer
PublicAffairs; Published: 2000-09-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.25
Price in other shops:
The Coup: A Novelby Jamie Malanowski
Doubleday; Published: 2007-07-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.47
Price in other shops:
Little Green Men: A Novelby Christopher Buckley, Random House Inc.
Harper Perennial; Published: 2000-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
The White House Messby Christopher Buckley
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1995-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.54
Price in other shops:
No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novelby Christopher Buckley
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2003-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.54
Price in other shops:
Supreme Courtshipby Christopher Buckley
Twelve; Published: 2009-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.37
Price in other shops:
Thank You for Smoking: A Novelby Christopher Buckley
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-02-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Florence of Arabia: A Novelby Christopher Buckley
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2005-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.31
Price in other shops: