Buckley's political comedy about the battle between Generation Whatever (Gen W) and the Baby Boomers is a riot of laughs.  His lead character, Cassandra Devine, works for a PR firm massaging the public images of companies of dubious virtue but at night she blogs.  She points out that as the Baby Boomers start to retire, the younger generation will have to spend a large proportion of their income on supporting these elderly people.  She instigates protests on golf courses, and as a result, is arrested and becomes a national figure with her picture on the face of Time magazine.  Cassandra makes an alliance with congressman Randy Jepperson, and she goes on to provoke the national conversation about the impending financial crisis by suggesting a solution: those reaching the age of 70 should be given a tax incentive to end their lives, which she calls "transitioning."  This causes the ire of right wing religious groups, but wins the support of surprisingly many politicians who want the youth vote.  The President forms a committee to investigate the suggestion.  The sparks fly.

Cas is an appealing heroine, being resilient, smart and principled (to an extent), even if Ayn Rand is her inspiration.  She had planned to go to Yale, but then she found out that her father had invested all the college funds in his dot.com start up business.  She joined the army instead of going to college with the aim of finding an alternative source of paying for her higher education, but she gets in an accident with Jepperson that has to be covered up, so she ends up in the public relations business.  The other main characters are larger than life.  Jepperson is ready to do anything to become president.  Southerner Gideon Payne runs the pro-life group SPERM (the Society for the Protection of Every Ribonucleic Molecule), and is full of bluster.  Cas' own father, whose business finally succeeds, is now fantastically rich and starts working with the President, and publicly condemns his own daughter. 

Boomsday succeeds as a satire, although its targets are all rather obvious: futile wars, corrupt politicians, scheming capitalists, and hypocritical religious leaders.  The writing is clever and the plot moves quickly.  Janeane Garofalo reads the unabridged audiobook with gusto, and it will provide excellent listening for long trips. 

© 2007 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.  His main research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction, AudioBooks