Jennifer Government by Max Barry

1220 Words3 Pages

Imagine a world where your last name is the company you work for. Imagine a world where the United States includes all of North American, all of South America, all of Australia, the Pacific Islands, South Africa, India, Thailand and Russia. Welcome to Jennifer Government. The novel can be looked at by a reader as a simple, yet innovative story. The novel can also be seen as a deep, catawampus story with plenty of plot twists that are nicely blended together. Each successive chapter is told from the view from a different character; each chapter holds a different plot twist that keeps the reader guessing from one paragraph to the next; each chapter delves into sense of human emotion. Max Barry focuses strongly on the use of political satire plot of his story while using a unique style of third person limited point of view to bring about a story of deceit, and scandal.

Within the first few chapter of Jennifer Government, the reader will notice a unique style of narration. First the reader is following behind Hack Nike in his office building. Next the reader is behind Hayley McDonald's, a student. A few turns of the pages and the reader is behind Buy Mitsui, a stock broker.

Barry takes the traditional style of third person limited and adds a spin to it. In traditional third person limited, a narrator becomes a shadow of character, follows that character around, and tells what he or she sees happening. Barry's style of third person limited takes on a slight twist though. A reader could imagine there are several different narrators in Jennifer Government.

This style of point of view adds a new feeling while reading the novel. The reader will be looking through the eyes of someone shadowing Jennifer Government and seeing it in one style, but then on the next page, the reader will see what's happening through the eyes of someone shadowing Billy NRA. Even though the narrator may change, the story will progress. You can compare the technique to a basketball game. One moment, the person is in the audience watching the game. The next moment the person is a player on the bench. Then the person becomes a player on the court taking shots. After that, the person changes into a referee calling the game. At the end, the person becomes the coach and calls the shots of the game.

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