I read a review of this book a while back that talked about its smart satire and stylish wit and left me thinking it might be one I'd want to check out. So when I came across a copy at the local discount bookseller, I picked it up. There's a part of me that wishes I'd read the reviews on Amazon.com first.
Not that this is a bad book… more that it's one where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts. It's set in a dystopic future where capitalism has reached its logical extreme, the American government is privatized and places like Australia (where much of the book takes place) are now "the Australian Territories of the U.S.A." People adopt their employers name as their surname, so John Nike works for Nike and Jennifer Government… well you get how it works. The police will stop a crime if it's in progress, but you must hire them to investigate that crime if you want the perpetrators charged and tried. (One of the more inspired moments in the book comes as one of the characters enters a police station. Ad campaigns leap out at him, urging him to chose the police for his crime prevention needs. As he walks up to the watch commanders desk, Every Breath You Take plays in the background.)
Sadly, this kind of inspired stuff is the exception, rather than the rule. The story revolves around a guerilla marketing campaign gone horribly wrong, the lengths to which the amoral John Nike is willing to go to protect his career once things start to go south and Jennifer's attempts to investigate this fiasco and bring John to justice.
But it all ends up, despite the satiric promise of the book's setup, rather pedestrian. Jennifer's reasons for chasing John, above and beyond his obvious need to be taken down (cardboard characters are another of the books problems), are well-worn and obvious and, frankly, questionable when you get down to the whole "what exactly is your JOB" kind of question. The resolution is trite and the big reveal (regarding the mysterious barcode tattoo Jennifer sports under her left eye) is, while mildly amusing, rather disappointing. It's such a minor laugh that saving its explanation to the end of the book implies an importance that the reality simply can't bear up to. (Revealed in passing earlier in the book, it would have earned a respectable chuckle, but held out to the end like it is, it leaves you wanting the secret to be something… more.)
Not to damn the book with faint praise (since I like going to the movies) but my reaction, once I got to the end of the book, was that while it's a rather disappointing read, it could make a pretty decent movie. Its thin story, while not enough to really carry you through a novel would be more than adequate to sustain a 90-minute film. So I wasn't surprised to read that the book's been optioned by Clooney & Soderbergh's Section 8 films. I wish them luck with it… it could be a fun ride.
Just not so much a fun read.
Not that this is a bad book… more that it's one where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts. It's set in a dystopic future where capitalism has reached its logical extreme, the American government is privatized and places like Australia (where much of the book takes place) are now "the Australian Territories of the U.S.A." People adopt their employers name as their surname, so John Nike works for Nike and Jennifer Government… well you get how it works. The police will stop a crime if it's in progress, but you must hire them to investigate that crime if you want the perpetrators charged and tried. (One of the more inspired moments in the book comes as one of the characters enters a police station. Ad campaigns leap out at him, urging him to chose the police for his crime prevention needs. As he walks up to the watch commanders desk, Every Breath You Take plays in the background.)
Sadly, this kind of inspired stuff is the exception, rather than the rule. The story revolves around a guerilla marketing campaign gone horribly wrong, the lengths to which the amoral John Nike is willing to go to protect his career once things start to go south and Jennifer's attempts to investigate this fiasco and bring John to justice.
But it all ends up, despite the satiric promise of the book's setup, rather pedestrian. Jennifer's reasons for chasing John, above and beyond his obvious need to be taken down (cardboard characters are another of the books problems), are well-worn and obvious and, frankly, questionable when you get down to the whole "what exactly is your JOB" kind of question. The resolution is trite and the big reveal (regarding the mysterious barcode tattoo Jennifer sports under her left eye) is, while mildly amusing, rather disappointing. It's such a minor laugh that saving its explanation to the end of the book implies an importance that the reality simply can't bear up to. (Revealed in passing earlier in the book, it would have earned a respectable chuckle, but held out to the end like it is, it leaves you wanting the secret to be something… more.)
Not to damn the book with faint praise (since I like going to the movies) but my reaction, once I got to the end of the book, was that while it's a rather disappointing read, it could make a pretty decent movie. Its thin story, while not enough to really carry you through a novel would be more than adequate to sustain a 90-minute film. So I wasn't surprised to read that the book's been optioned by Clooney & Soderbergh's Section 8 films. I wish them luck with it… it could be a fun ride.
Just not so much a fun read.
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