A dytopian novel in the "end of civilization" sub-genre, perhaps even more pessimistic than [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)|Margaret Atwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578028274l/38447.SY75.jpg|1119185] -- on similar lines to [b:Earth Abides|93269|Earth Abides|George R. Stewart|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320505234l/93269.SY75.jpg|1650913] by [a:George Stewart|53501|George R. Stewart|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1308205401p2/53501.jpg] and [b:The Stand|87591651|The Stand|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1674820514l/87591651.SX50.jpg|1742269] by [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] (who recommends this one in his book [b:On Writing|12581|On Writing (Modern Library)|Eudora Welty|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403184503l/12581.SY75.jpg|14866]. The atmosphere, however, is more like that in [b:The Road|50698948|The Long Gravel Road|Johnnie Young|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580184620l/50698948.SX50.jpg|2700743] by [a:Cormac Macarthy] (I may have spelt that wrong, but I'm not going to look it up and hang around while my computer tells me that Firefox is "not responding").

Anyway, that should give you an idea of what genre and subgenre and sub-subgenre it is. If you liked one or more of those books, you'll probably like this one.

In [b:Oryx and Crake|46756|Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)|Margaret Atwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1668379066l/46756.SY75.jpg|3143431] several trends in current society and culture are extrapolated into a near future. "Gated Communities" have become more isolated, mainly concerned with developing new products that can be sold to the "pleebs", where the present trends in advertising hype are also expanded and extrapolated.

Where this one differs from others in the genre, however, is that the narrator, Jimmy, alias the Snowman, knows a little of the nature and causes of the current catastrophe, though not the details, because he was only involved in the advertising side. Most of the other books in the genre focus on the bewildered victims of a catastrophe, who can only guess at what caused it. Jimmy knows, but only imparts his knowledge to the reader piece by piece, almost as a confession.