Cass Cohane had her whole life in front of her. She had worked hard all through high school, and had achieved her dream—she got accepted into Yale. But when she found out that her father Frank had taken her tuition money and invested it into his new dot com business, she is upset but eventually realizes that his new plan for her future might be for the best. She should join the military, and they’ll pay the tuition. Frank had even contacted Yale, and they were willing to defer her admission until she’s discharged.
That’s how Cass ended up on an Army base in Bosnia, writing press releases and escorting visiting VIPs, like the Massachusetts Congressman Randolph K. Jepperson. Jepperson has a rich family history in American politics, so a Presidential run is almost a given for the man. Cass doesn’t much care about that, or about his penchant for dating actresses and models, or for his dissatisfaction that the American Army is in Bosnia. All she cares about is dong her job so she can get back to her life’s original track.
But then Jepperson suggests that they leave the base, and Cass feels like she has to oblige. They find a local bar and have a beer, and when some angry Bosnians start giving them looks from across the room, Cass knows it’s time to get back to the base. Jepperson talks her into driving them, and he takes off too fast. The men follow them, so Jepperson tries to lose them by cutting across a field. Cass tries to stop him, realizing that he is driving through a minefield.
When Cass wakes up in the hospital, she is informed that she is being offered an honorable discharge from the Army and that the Congressman has lost a leg at the knee.
After her military career implodes, Cass comes back to the states and works at a PR firm. But her real work starts when she goes home at night. A popular political blogger now known as Cassandra Divine, she spends her nights online ranting about the financial irresponsibility of the current leadership. As she watches the Baby Boomers spend recklessly (and finding out that her now wealthy tech investor father just donated $10 million to Yale to help get his new wife’s son accepted to the fine school), her blog posts get increasingly angry. And when she comes up with an idea to curb the spending of Social Security by having the Boomers end their own lives at 75, also known as Boomsday, then her popularity takes off among the younger generation who had been asked to make higher payments to Social Security.
Then Randy Jepperson comes back into her life (in truth, he was never that far away, even though the rumors about what happened that night in the minefield had haunted Cass ever since), wanting her to bring her momentum along on his run for the White House. And as the stakes get higher, the drama increases, and Cass is forced to decide what she really wants from her future.
Boomsday is one of the smartest examples of political satire I have ever read. Christopher Buckley has a way with intricate plotting, layering plots and subplots like a master chef layering flavors and textures. I read this book years ago, and I really liked it. This time I listened to it on audio, and I found so much more about this story to appreciate. Maybe I enjoyed this more because I’m older and these political and financial subjects are closer to my heart now than they were when I originally read Boomsday, or maybe it’s just one of those books that ages well.
Generally, I avoid an abridged audio book, as I want to hear every word of the original book. But when I found a copy of the abridged version read by Janeane Garofalo, I couldn’t resist. I have big fan of hers for a long time, and if she’s willing to read me a book, then I will say yes, please, no matter the book or the format. So abridged it was. She’s clearly not a book narrator, but she’s still Janeane Garofalo, and that made it a delightful experience for me to listen to this book. I loved it, with all its snark, all its sarcasm, all its minefields. Boomsday is simply divine.
