Boomsday

by Christopher Buckley

Book Overview

One of America's most hilarious novelists and bestselling author of Thank You for Smoking takes on the plight of aging Baby Boomers in this Swiftian comedy about generational warfare.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446579815
• ISBN13: 9780446579810
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Twelve
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Hope You All Die Before You Get Older (Talking 'bout Your Generation)

When I'm with friends, a favorite party drinking game is watching "Behind the Music" on VH1. The show usually profiles some graying rock musician in a faded denim vest whose receding hair is nonetheless pulled back into the obligatory ponytail. We all place bets on how long into the episode it will take for him to say, "I'm a child of the 1960s." Child? Hey, I was born in the 1960s, and I've already got a bad back and calcified knee joints, and I squint when reading books with small type. Jesus, I can only imagine one of my Korean War-veteran uncles saying, "I'm a child of the '50s." He'd be laughed right out of the American Legion hall. For satirist Christopher Buckley, the prospect of over seventy million of these "children" retiring, demanding federal funding for their Viagra and Depends, and bankrupting the Social Security "trust fund" by 2017, is definitely a laughing matter. Comely blogger Cassandra Devine, the heroine of his latest political comedy, Boomsday, creates a furor when, at her behest, her fellow "Generation Whatever" members run roughshod over gated retirement communities and golf courses--all because the government has hiked their taxes yet again to pay for the excesses of the "Ungreatest Generation." Calling for an "economic Bastille Day," Cassandra incites her peers: "If the government can withhold our money, then we can withhold our money." For this PR spin-doctor-by-day, life is pretty comfortable. So, why does she spend her nights downing Red Bulls to stay awake at her laptop, tapping out angry missives to the Unwashed? You don't need to be Freud to find the source of her rage in her baby boomer father: jet-setting narcissist Frank Cohane. Having few moments to spare for his smart-as-a-whip daughter, Frank nonetheless lives vicariously through her over-achieving and pushes her to get into the Ivy League. The day that the longed-for acceptance letter arrives, he's already decked out his BMW with Yale decals. But when he empties her 529 college fund to start up a dot-com business, and trades his family for a new and improved trophy wife, Cass is forced to join the Army to pay for college. After her discharge, and nursing an injury sustained from a tour in Bosnia (under eyebrow-raising circumstances), Cass locks herself up in her bedroom and plots her vengeful future while reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. (Fans will appreciate the fact that Cass spends a lot of time correcting people who call her inspiration "Ann Rand.") Her tax revolt lands her on the front cover of Time and on the Sunday talk shows. Cass explains that politicians have shirked their responsibility to reform Social Security and the tax code, even as budget deficits and the national debt skyrocket and force the burden onto future generations. Taking a page from Jonathan Swift, she makes a "modest proposal" to put America's fiscal house in order: boomers who, for the good of the country, commit suicide at age seventy-five ("voluntary transitio

You gotta laugh...

Listen, is everybody here reading Christopher Buckley? Seriously folks, you need to pick up a book. I know it's political satire. And a book about Social Security reform doesn't sound like it has a lot of potential. But trust me, this is laugh-out-loud funny stuff. Who else could invent a pro-life organization called the Society for the Protection of Every Ribonucleic Molecule--or SPERM for short. Even his little throw-aways are fabulous. The protagonist is briefly incarcerated. In prison, there are so many jailed journalists refusing to name sources (from the Society Page, for example) that they have their own gang: Pulitzer Nation. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Cassandra Devine is a 29-year-old on a crusade. She feels passionately that her generation should not be bankrupted paying for the retirement benefits of baby boomers. With the government apparently unwilling to propose a workable solution she decides to bring this front and center in American politics as a "meta-issue." With her PR background and her senatorial mouthpiece she can make it happen. Suddenly "voluntary transitionsing," (legalized suicide at the age of 70 for tax breaks and other benefits) is all anyone can talk about. It goes from being a tool for dialogue to being seriously considered by voters. Buckley has an amazing eye for skewering our culture. The reason he's so funny is that everything he observes is so painfully true! Fans of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report will surely enjoy.

The Funniest Book About Fiscal Policy

Just out this week, Christopher Buckley once again proves his prowess for political satire. The title of Boomsday refers to the impending fiscal crisis coming from the retirement of the Baby Boomers. This will cause strain on the Social Security system and Medicare. The protagonist of the novel, Cassandra Devine, spin doctor by day, blogger by night (with the help of Red Bull) has had a lot of troubles in her young life, but rallies the "Whatever" Generation to cause when Congress once again places the Boomers financial cost onto post Gen-Xers. Buckley once again provides laughs at the expense of those in power, and presents a masterful understanding of politics. Overall, I enjoyed Boomsday more than Florence of Arabia, but not as much as Thank You For Smoking. I think the reason for this is that the character of Nick Naylor in Smoking is just utterly captivating, and it is his character that drives the story. Cassandra Devine is perhaps not as fully realized as Naylor, but is still someone the reader can latch onto. As a blogger myself, I assume people might expect me to make some comment as to Cassandra's hobby as a blogger. Well it's pretty spot on, except I personally don't write into the wee hours of the day blogging. It's good in that she's a blogger, but she isn't sitting home in her pajamas all day, and thus perhaps reflects most bloggers who are regular (or semi-regular people). The character also makes reference to not having post times at odd hours of the morning. That I find especially funny, as I have done that on more than one occasion. Randy Jepperson, the other main character in the book is interesting. A Senator from Massachusetts, and it isn't clear whether or not Buckley wants us to like him or not. Mostly in his dealings with Cassandra does this come out. You end up liking him when she does, and hating him when she does. In the end, Boomsday is highly entertaining, and much funnier than one would expect a book dealing with the looming fiscal crisis as a plot device to be. Highly recommended.

Buckley at his best!

My copy of this book arrived last week and I spent the weekend simultaneously reading, laughing out loud, and cringing...I am a baby boomer,though thankfully, not 70. Could there be a more timely topic than social security benfits, especially health care benefits, as socialized medicine... oops! Universal Health Care, is becoming a buzzword of this elongated two-year presidential election circus...umm, cycle? If you've ever wondered how political buzzwords are generated, how politicians seem to pop up out of nowhere, why politicians who seem to have little in common suddenly are jointly sponsoring bills, how special interest groups make strange bedfellows as well, or what happens when great sounding programs actually have to be paid for, it's all here in a very funny, easy to read volume. Buckley is an equal opportunity satirist so no stone is unturned and no player is left unscathed as they try to wheel and deal their way to what they REALLY want.....MORE POWER! You will never look at the parade of candidates, the nightly news, the weekly political talk shows, a pollster, or your friendly political blog the same way.