Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
Blurb for the back cover:
“A clever satire that helps drive the point home about how young people are screwed”
Oh political satire.. How conflicted I am towards you. On one hand you are funny and a joy to read, on the other you are preachy and like to point out flaws in the government that make me worry about my future.
Christopher Buckley (author of Thank You For Smoking) wrote Boomsday as a political satire whose main focus was the social security system in the US. The young people take to the streets when they realize that they are the one paying for the Baby Boomers to retire and spend the rest of their days playing golf and living in Florida. Led by Cassandra Devine, from a sinister PR firm, a campaign is launched in vain of Swift’s Modest Proposal that would offer incentives to the Baby Boomers who agree to “Voluntarily Transition” at an agree upon age. Cassandra then teams up with Senator Randolph Jepperson who plans on using “Voluntary Transition” as his agenda to become President.
Prior to this book (which I had to read for my Satire class), I had not read any of Buckley’s books. Boomsday is a clever satire that helps drive the point home about how young people are screwed. The book can be a little slow at times, but for the most part the pace is enjoyable. I would recommend checking out Buckley’s works if you are a fan of satire.
