2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America
Albert Brooks

This novel is one awesome read. It is a novel that I started quite some time ago, so I thought that I should start it again and finish it to the end this time. Albert Brooks is hilarious, there were many part of the book where I was laughing out loud and people around me thought I was crazy. He writes about what the world will be like in the year 2030 and I could see him being correct in many areas that he wrote about. This novel is this generation's 1984 (1984 - George Orwell). 1984 has come and gone now and Orwell's book made a lasting impression for many decades and the argument could be made that many of the ideas that Orwell wrote about actually came true - we really have no privacy today and we are all slaves to our televisions. Albert Brooks takes a new look into the future this time and maybe what he says could come true...

The premise of the book is that, due to scientific advances in the medical field, old people are enjoying longer and more healthier lives (researchers found a cure for cancer 15 years prior - 2015). The young people are now stuck in a society of decreasing opportunity while the price for things continues to rise. The young people are supposed to provide for themselves, their elders, and pay off the world's debt. This causes a lot of problems in the book. The young people are becoming increasingly resentful towards the old people and acts of terrorism against the old people begin.

Here are some of the facts that the book presents in itself (fictional framework):

• Social Security and Medicare are money pits
• The national debt prevents the government from stimulating the economy
• American taxes are now over-the-moon (sky) high
• Iran is secretly building nuclear weapons now (2011)
• There is a group of lobbyist specifically for the interests of old people

The novel is so dense with many ideas, funny, and quite dark at some points - Albert Brooks had me at the first page. I couldn't help to read what was coming next!I hope you enjoy it as much as I did if you decide to read it!

Till the next review! (The Children of Men - P.D. James)
Rebekka. :)