Permanence problem

Sportswriter Drew Magary makes a big change for his first novel, The Postmortal, which is set in the near future (just eight years out) and starts with a cure for mortality. Who knew it was a disease? But a dose of “the cure” will guarantee that, whatever kills you, it won’t be old age. You might still croak from the flu or stroke out or kill yourself at some extreme sport, but once you’ve taken “the cure,” you won’t age a day. But of course, there are unintended consequences, and they’re pretty Malthusian (as in: too many people and not enough of them are dying). Magary’s main character and narrator, John Farrell, isn’t particularly sympathetic (he’s a lawyer, all right?), but he is terribly interesting. That makes it worth following him for the next six decades to see what havoc eternal life can create in a culture as self-absorbed and borderline psychotic as ours.