A thought-provoking hoot

This book was a riot. I'm the furthest thing from a political junky, but found this look at DC hi-jinks great fun. At the same time, the book really makes you think about the government mortgaging our future, agism and messaging to the masses.

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5 people found this helpful

Light fun on a long drive

Not terribly sophisticated plot or characters but it was fun to listen to. It was good enough that I will try another of Buckley's books. Garofallo's representation of characters isn't the best but still tolerable. I would hesitate to purchase another read by her, though.

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1 person found this helpful

Entertaining and prescient.

I had to look (twice) to confirm that this book was, in fact, written before the current election cycle. The story is fun and entertaining, but the experience was really made for me by Garofolo's reading, which is excellent, and the crystal ball through which Buckley was looking when he wrote this. Definitely enjoyable listening.

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Buckley strikes again!

Boomsday has excellent character development and many funny moments. At 10 hours it is a long book, but just when you think it can not make you laugh anymore, the book has new twists and turns. If anyone can find humor in the Social Security funding crisis, it is Christopher Buckley! Be sure to check your ego at the door because he skewers a wide range of characters.

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3 people found this helpful

America's

Janeane Garofalo reads the tale of a brilliant brat who joins the military, becomes a national figure riding through a minefield with a U. S. Senator, and as a public relations guru, offers a most remarkable solution to the dilemna of funding baby boomers' retirement entitlements.

The story is light, occasionally ill-informed (the Social Security Admininstration building is in Woodlawn MD, not D.C., after all) but full of energy and imagination. As with most of Buckley's work, the destination is just an excuse for the ride. Very entertaining stuff.

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6 people found this helpful

Great fun

An amusing - sometimes hilarious - approach to the political and economic impact of my generation - the Boomers. The narration is fabulous.

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2 people found this helpful

Boom for entertainment

Entertaining to listen too. If you want some easy listening to pass the time this is a great

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Rendered Moot by a One-Line Fix...

... as well as by all that has transpired in American politics since its publication.

In Thank You For Smoking, Chris Buckley's best known political satire, Nick Naylor asks a movie producer who wants to promote smoking in a sci-fi movie, "Cigarettes in space? Wouldn't they blow up in an all-oxygen environment?" The reply: "it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue: 'Thank God we created the, you know, whatever device.'" The one-line fix.

Buckley's Boomsday is based on the idea that Social Security is about to go broke as the populous baby boomer generation reaches retirement age. Rather than allow her generation to face increased payroll taxes, Cass Devine comes up with a better plan -- incent retired boomers to euthanize themselves in exchange for tax breaks and other perks.

Unfortunately, Buckley did not do his homework. He apparently did not realize (because he never once mentions it) that there is a real-life one-line fix to any Social Security crisis: extend the payroll tax beyond its upper limit of $132,900 (in 2019). This may be difficult to pass, but it's do-able, and it's the first thing anyone would do to solve a funding crisis. Most people don't even realize that you stop paying FICA after the first $132,900, because most people make less than that, and those who make more are not about to call attention to this most regressive of taxes.

But if it ever becomes a problem, there's an easy enough solution. A one-line fix.

I understand this is satire and no one would ever really suggest euthanizing retirees to solve a budget crisis (though the idea of death panels resurfaces once in a while, which would be comical if it wasn't so shameful). Still, for a satire to work, there has to be some understanding of the reality of the situation being satirized, and Boomsday fails on this simplest of levels, as well as several others.

To wit: changes made in 1983 ensure that Social Security will remain solvent at least until 2037, so Buckley's idea that aging boomers will bankrupt the system was moot decades ago. Not to mention that boomers didn't all suddenly reach retirement age on the same date (no one even agrees what age range falls into the baby boom), and their large population presumably over-funded Social Security during their working years.

More importantly, the whole issue of the solvency of Social Security as a political football is just that -- a political football, a red herring intended to frighten people who would rather believe nonsense spouted by manipulative politicians than do the minimal amount of research (five minutes' worth) it would take to recognize that these are baseless scare tactics. In Boomsday, the scare is taken at face value.

Politics over the decade since he wrote Boomsday have demonstrated amply that the real problem is not budgetary, it's political demagoguery, the easy manipulation of the uninformed by feckless leaders. We need satirists like Buckley to expose these frauds, not be fooled by them. We also need them to have the courage to name the worst offenders -- Buckley does not, creating a sense of false equivalency that has long been unmasked.

On the other hand, if facts don't get in the way of your enjoyment as they did mine, it's pretty droll, and Janeane Garofalo is a good narrator. There is actually (potentially) a decent story here on a personal level that would have made for a much better non-satirical novel had Buckley chosen to develop characters instead of caricatures.

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Extremely Funny story and narrated so well.

I still hear the voice of Montefeltro in my mind in his accent.
Oh God ! I Have never laughed so much on an audio book, not even when listening to James Herriot series.
This is the Funniest one, and more so because Audible narrated it SO well.
The scene about Gideon calling an Escort House and where Gideon's watch is "donated" to Ms.Tolstoy, then the scene where the Pope's office calls Montefeltro, and STFU scene are simply amazingly funny.
I was laughing in my car so much that the traffic cop was looking at me strangely.
Thanks Audible for breathing life into a wonderful Novel.

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Very Funny

Buckley has written another hilarious book. It is witty, intelligent, and full of laughs. Garafalo is fantastic with the narration. This is a comedy after all, so picking a comedienne who can time the jokes and lines properly was a essential.

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4 people found this helpful