Boomsday

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley is a fun, light hearted satire by the man who wrote Thank You for Smoking and Little Green Men.

It’s the story of Cassandra Devine, a twenty something blogger who starts blogging about how US finances are collapsing because of the cost of pensions and entitlements for retirees. She suggests that older folks be given government incentives to end their lives before the financial burden becomes too great. Cassandra’s tale is wound up with Gideon Payne, an organiser for Southern Evangelism, the opportunistic President Bill Peacham, her boss Terry Tucker and the Senator and presidential candidate Randolph Jepperson.

The book is full of clever acronyms and quick wit. Buckley aims to combine Noel Coward like wit with sharp observance of the strange farce that is modern politics. In Thank you for Smoking and Little Green Men this works very well, in The White House Mess it also comes off well. In Boomsday it doesn’t quite. But it’s a good try and a fun, quick read.

3/5