Boomsday is a 2007 novel by Christopher Buckley, which is a political satire about the rivalry between squandering Baby Boomers and younger generations of Americans who don't want to pay high taxes for their elders' retirement.

Title

Boomsday is referred in the book as the day that a majority of the Baby Boomers would begin retiring, thrusting the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 into economic trouble and the raising of taxes to compensate for Social Security

Social Security (United States)

In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...

.

Plot synopsis

Cassandra Devine, "a morally superior twenty-nine-year-old PR chick" and moonlit angry blogger incites generational warfare when she proposes that the financially inviable Baby Boomers be given incentives (free Botox, no estate tax) to kill themselves at age seventy. The proposal, only meant as a catalyst for debate on the issue, catches the approval of millions of citizens, chief among them an ambitious Presidential Candidate, Senator Randolph Jepperson.



With the aide of PR

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 guru Terry Tucker, Devine and Jepperson attempt to ride "Voluntary Transitioning" all the way to the White House, over the objections of the Religious Right and the Baby Boomers, deeply offended by the demonstrations taking place on the golf courses of their retirement resorts.

Connections to Other Media

• Terry Tucker, Cassandra's boss and co-conspirator, is said to have learnt what he knows from Nick Naylor, the protagonist of Buckley's 1996 novel Thank You For Smoking.

Reception

The novel received mainly positive reviews, with critics favouring the unsubtle satire and the addressing of nigh-important issues. The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

compared Boomsday to Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

and the works of Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...

, although both comparisons were unfavorable, noting that Buckley's novel "might make you long for the days when puerile humor wasn't confused with genuine wit".

Film adaptation

Screenwriters Ron Bass and Jen Smolka have adapted the novel into a screenplay. Tom Vaughan

Tom Vaughan (director)

Tom Vaughan is a Scottish television and film director. His work includes Cold Feet and He Knew He Was Right for television, and What Happens in Vegas and Extraordinary Measures for cinema....

will direct the film in early 2011 for GreeneStreet Films and Das Films.

External links

• "Boomsday" at Twelvebooks.com