Rating: 4 stars (Spotlight Review)
I don’t know if this would be considered pessimistic, but right now, the world is in the toilet. There are no jobs for the experienced, much less for those just graduating. Social Security has been questionable since I was in elementary school. Our natural resources have been in danger of depletion for years. Filling up your gas tank will soon require a loan and, speaking of loans, don’t even get me started on the housing market.
So the question stands: Why would anyone want to live forever?
In his new book, The Postmortal, Drew Magary takes on this very topic, creating a world with a whole new type of pro-life debate.
In the not-so-distant future of 2019, “The Cure” is created which allows people to stop aging and, short of any normal disease, outside influence or accident, they could potentially live forever.
The story opens in the year 2093 when a worker for the Department of Containment finds an old hard drive containing the blog of John Farrell—the book’s protagonist, and regular-Joe whose life begins to resemble John Conner’s—detailing sixty-six years of his experience during inception of, and participation in, The Cure. The result of Farrell’s diligence corroborates one important fact: The Cure must never be legalized again.
As with all new ground-breaking findings, there is dissention among the public ranks in regards to changing the status quo—and then there’s the government’s two cents. As expected, there are obvious consequences of The Cure’s impact on natural resources and infrastructure, but other issues also blur as a result: How will a life-sentence be determined? How will marriage work? How do you retire? Do women really want to have their period or fight adult acne for hundreds of years? (I’m sure I’m not the only one responding with a resounding “NO!”)
Prior to legalization of The Cure, John Farrell, a twenty-nine-year-old lawyer, decided to pay the $7,000 fee and get the then back-alley treatment. When brow-beat by his best-friend and roommate Katy, he finally relents and tells her where she can get it too; even accompanying her to her appointment.
However, as Katy rides the elevator to the top floor, the building explodes, killing all inside. The dissenters have made their position known.
Once the procedure is legalized, it opens the doors to the manipulation of the masses who, as usual, disregard the rules and regulations. In one instance, an unstable mother ignores the minimum age requirement of twenty-six and injects her eight-month-old baby to ensure the child will always need her.
Magary does a fantastic job of absolutely scaring the pants off of anyone who has ever contemplated a prolonged life. He has taken the evils of every tumultuous social issue in an effort to provide support and structure to his new world. From bombings, hate-propaganda and marketing campaigns, to the self-appointed “organic” henchmen called Greenies—a future KKK that focuses on type, rather than color—and creates an environment that would make Mad Max Rockatansky nervous.
Drew Magary has successfully created one of the most entertaining and terrifying cautionary tales since Fatal Attraction.
After reading The Postmortal I’m sure you’ll agree that a natural death never looked so good.
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Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); 1 edition (August 30, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0143119821