Book Review: “Boomsday” by Christopher Buckley
Christopher Buckley, perhaps best known for Thank You For Smoking, has managed to produce another social-critical satire this time targeting Social Security reform and the view we have of the Millennial generation as simultaneously apathetic and violently activist. The plot you can read about anywhere — Amazon blurbs, the back of the book, Boomsday’s goodreads page — but you won’t realise how well-crafted this political satire truly is until you start reading it.
Buckley starts out criticising the under-thirties, or as protagonist Cass calls them, U30s, but ends up mocking the US political system of backhanded signatures, under-the-table dealmaking, and unnecessary political targeting, not to mention how outlandish and impossible the bill-passing procedure is, taking something that was at its heart a well-intended call to action and turning it into a docile lamb. He picks at the armed forces, at congress, at George Bush, at California tech wealth, at big-mouthed bloggers, at PR firms, at the House of Representatives, at the Baby Boomer golf generation — in short, at a whole lot more than just capitol hill. Sure he tries too hard to seem current, hipster, and witty, and yeah the end is abrupt, under-developed, and unsatisfying, but the premise is just intriguing enough to follow through on.
At times hard to tell if Buckley’s handiwork is a call to action or just another cynical diatribe, it’s fresh enough to pick up, but convoluted enough to put down. Brilliant? No. Entertaining? Thought-provoking? Sure. Worth reading? Probably. And for a book about politics, that’s probably the best you’re going to get.
View all my reviews. (via goodreads)