What has 318 pages and a whole lot of character? It's not half a Harry Potter novel, the newest in the "Twilight" series or your diary. It's "Boomsday."
Christopher Buckley, author of "Thank You for Smoking," satirizes a political debate once again. In the book, Boomsday is the moment in the future when the Baby Boomer generation cashes in on their Social Security, sending the nation into economic chaos. (Hey, that sounds familiar!)
Main character Cassandra Devine - public relations spinner, Ayn Rand devotee and furious blogger - incites national rebellion and tries to derail the oncoming disaster. Her theory of "Voluntary Transitioning," where those who agree to commit suicide before age 65 receive a sizable tax cut and special benefits, is predictably controversial.
Perhaps the most entertaining part of the book is the cast of idiosyncratic characters: a public relations wiz, a senator from Massachusetts with a prosthetic leg and presidential ambitions, and Cassandra's father, who forced her to give up an Ivy League acceptance to join the military when she was 18 because he wasted the family's money on business ventures.
Hopping from "present" to "three years later" takes a bit of a toll on the consistency, and the countless plot turns sometimes leave the reader puzzled. Readers might be stumped by the many intellectual references Buckley drops or inspired by the innumerable off-the-wall quotes.
If you can't stomach gross sarcasm and constant confusion, it's best to leave this brightly jacketed book on the shelf. 
Offbeat and mercurial, "Boomsday" is plain old political satire with a modern, wacky twist.
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