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| All that's left now is the end, which is all any of us ever had. |
I think* it was Auden who quipped that some books are
undeservedly forgotten but none are undeservedly remembered. So where, then, does
this leave Drew Magary’s binominal fantasy about the cure for death? To be
honest, I’m not sure as I can’t remember.
I have the vague recollection that I was annoyed by it, on the
basis of having read a glowing review or a recommendation from another book or book-reader
whose opinions I may have courted eagerly, and then being disappointed, but again that has been lost in the
mists of time. I’ve since scoured** the internet for reviews to back me up, and
75% of them (or three out of the four I could push myself to skim-read) were
broadly positive, whereas one was positively dismissive, but none of them were
able to supercharge the neural pathways to the point I can recall with any surety
who anyone was, what they did, and why I didn’t care about any of them.
Quick plot synopsis then to add some down to this
featherless pillow; there has been a medical breakthrough which has identified
and prevented the cause of cellular decay to the point that a ‘cure’ for ageing
is now available. One can still be killed, but one may never grow old should
that be desired. Of course, age-old institutions, conventions and traditions
are now rendered obsolete, including the institution of marriage, but people are
still breeding irresponsibly and with no loosely and biologically defined
lifespan, the world is on the brink of collapse. The US government intervenes
with some sinister legislation rendering nearly all crimes worthy of capital punishment
and sending out death squads to take care of administering sentences (and
anyone deemed ‘too old’ in the process). Our narrator, using the wiltingly
tired format of an online blog***, charts his course from taking the cure aged
29 through 60 years of his life up until he comes to question his role as an
End Specialist (hence the title in the UK – in the US it is sold as The
Postmortal) for some reason which I can no longer remember. It’s probably
something to do with a woman, otherwise what would be the point?
What more can I say? I mean that literally. I have no
comment to make except that the choice of protagonist’s name, John Farrell,
reminds me equally of the similarly monikered former Boston Red Sox coach, and
British comedy/political writer (are they not the same thing?) John O’Farrell.
The idea that something which sets free from fear the human spirit instead inspires
the basest of base instincts is not novel, and with no concept of writerly
prowess I can’t advocate for Magary’s skills or imagination.
I just can’t say anything positive.
So, this book gets a solid meh out of meh from me. Maybe go
read it yourselves and let me know what I’m talking about.
*Of course I’ve Googled it; what sort of question is that?
**Also Googled, and hastily
***Fuck off, this isn’t the future yet (although given the
book is set in 2019 onwards, some of the action isn’t in the future either)
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