Jennifer Government

#261
Title: Jennifer Government
Author: Max Barry
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2003
333 pages

A book to read in the bathtub, or as I used to call it when I worked in hospitals, "night shift reading"--something to keep you awake, but easy to put down if there's a need for your services. Jennifer Government is science fiction even if you find it shelved as literature. It's a fast read, entertaining enough, light on characterization and plot. When I say "light on plot," I mean that although events unfold and resolve, the reader is left with a sense of hollowness and many questions. Jennifer's tattoo, for example, poses a question that is answered but not well enough to justify its existence except as a flourish. Since much of William Gibson's oeuvre takes on corporations and their power, one might do better to look there instead for a more satisfying and complex exploration of these issues.