The Postmortal - Drew Magary : How a Main Character Can Ruin Your Story
Set in the near future where a cure for aging has been discovered and is made available to people worldwide after protests wrack major cities. However, the world has developed new unique problems of a disturbing new religious cult, government euthanasia programs, and even evil green people.
Told through a series of posts for a blog (hey, that's me!) or an online journal, John Farrell is a lawyer that takes the cure for death and witnesses the sixty-year period that followed the cure for aging. In my opinion, a lot of the horrors that Magary is able to bring to the table are deeply haunting and realistic, leaving the reader to be taken aback and ponder the unique premise. However, where the story falls slightly flat is how most of the main characters lack personality. To some degree, I understand this angle the author has taken, as it offers an opportunity for a decently neutral observer of the newly immortal world. John doesn't really do anything insane like most would upon receiving his prolonged lifespan, with the most memorable change he made in the beginning of the novel being that he doesn't get married to his girlfriend, Sonia.
This takes the novel in a direction I didn't think of at all - how will this complicate relationships as there is now infinite time? Sonia wants to get married, as she has invested four years of her life into this relationship and wants to spend the rest of their life together, but "rest of your life" and "till death do us part" doesn't have any meaning anymore. As John says, "A man in my office got engaged three months ago, and all the other men laughed at him. Every guy is supposed to be some macho, eternal bachelor now." He emphasizes that if they hadn't taken the cure, then he would be happy to settle down with her, but the fear of finding someone before it's too late and they're too old is gone now. Sonia makes the valid argument that marriage has always been about trusting the other person to stay with them no matter what. John had no answer to this, and offers one of the contracts that his firm has drawn up - a new type of prenuptial agreement of 40 years of marriage set in stone, with the opportunity to renew at the end of the time or dissolve the connection without any consequence. Obviously, Sonia turns this down and leaves him to be the eternal bachelor he wants to be.
The real horror comes from the events occurring in the wider world. News snippets are inserted at the beginning of chapters, allowing the reader to peak at what is even happening outside of John's perspective. I'll include some of the most thought-provoking in the extended body and more commentary on some spoiler-heavy parts of the novel.
Told through a series of posts for a blog (hey, that's me!) or an online journal, John Farrell is a lawyer that takes the cure for death and witnesses the sixty-year period that followed the cure for aging. In my opinion, a lot of the horrors that Magary is able to bring to the table are deeply haunting and realistic, leaving the reader to be taken aback and ponder the unique premise. However, where the story falls slightly flat is how most of the main characters lack personality. To some degree, I understand this angle the author has taken, as it offers an opportunity for a decently neutral observer of the newly immortal world. John doesn't really do anything insane like most would upon receiving his prolonged lifespan, with the most memorable change he made in the beginning of the novel being that he doesn't get married to his girlfriend, Sonia.
This takes the novel in a direction I didn't think of at all - how will this complicate relationships as there is now infinite time? Sonia wants to get married, as she has invested four years of her life into this relationship and wants to spend the rest of their life together, but "rest of your life" and "till death do us part" doesn't have any meaning anymore. As John says, "A man in my office got engaged three months ago, and all the other men laughed at him. Every guy is supposed to be some macho, eternal bachelor now." He emphasizes that if they hadn't taken the cure, then he would be happy to settle down with her, but the fear of finding someone before it's too late and they're too old is gone now. Sonia makes the valid argument that marriage has always been about trusting the other person to stay with them no matter what. John had no answer to this, and offers one of the contracts that his firm has drawn up - a new type of prenuptial agreement of 40 years of marriage set in stone, with the opportunity to renew at the end of the time or dissolve the connection without any consequence. Obviously, Sonia turns this down and leaves him to be the eternal bachelor he wants to be.
The real horror comes from the events occurring in the wider world. News snippets are inserted at the beginning of chapters, allowing the reader to peak at what is even happening outside of John's perspective. I'll include some of the most thought-provoking in the extended body and more commentary on some spoiler-heavy parts of the novel.
- The producers of Saved by the Bell reboot petitioned the governor of California to allow them to administer the cure to the show's teenage stars, so that their characters wouldn't have to graduate in the show. The governor denied their request.
- Leighton Astor was convicted of killing her billionaire father in an attempt to prematurely claim his estate. Her father had a cure age of 62.
- On Ryan Wexler's five hundredth home run: I have no problem with players taking the cure and breaking records and all that. They're just records. But one thing does concern me is how we're going to quantify success from this day forward. How can you be a success or have a legacy if your career - nay, your entire life - has no definite story arc?
-In an interview, Russian president Boris Solovyev vigorously denied numerous reports of police executing any Russian citizen over the cure age of fifty.
The most haunting story by far is one where a delusional mother gave her 8 month year old baby girl the cure, causing the infant to remain an baby forever. The mother didn't want her perfect baby to grow up, as she has raised other children before and they have turned out to be a drug addict and a convict. For her, the child that they used to be has died and will never come back. This incredibly selfish move was reported by the grandmother, and her statement in an inserted interview reveals the full extent of the consequences of the mother's actions. As Emilia will always remain an infant, she will never be able to take care of herself, and always dependent on those around her. What if something happens to the mother in jail? Or the grandmother? Who will take care of her then?
I think about that story a lot, as though I don't believe that any good parent would do that realistically, there is so much horror in being an infant forever and never being able to develop. Does Emilia have consciousness of her condition?
However, I have a lot of criticism for the characters, particularly John, and the almost xenophobic plot points at times during the novel? John is incredibly misogynistic at many times, often objectifying women and pursuing them for the sake of possessing them. Most of the women he interacts with are paper-thin in personality and are damsels-in-distress. From the beginning of the story, the name Solara Beck is mentioned as missing, and we read about how John fawns after this attractive blonde for decades as he believes she has something to do with the murder of his best friend at the time. However, it's revealed later on that she's just a hottie with an "impossible body" as he keeps mentioning that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What a let down! His internal monologue is genuinely gross at times as he acts like a hormonal teenage boy, and he is highly insensitive and not empathetic to lower-income people and even his own family. The novel is told through his personal words and point of view, yet he somehow displays little interest in the political landscape around him and doesn't develop in any significant way. None of the characters really do, they are all cliched, underdeveloped, stand ins for people that don't ever seem to like each other nor have meaningful conversation.
The portrayal of China, Russia, and the conflict within the Middle East is particularly disturbing as well. They are all portrayed as intensely brutally cruel governments, with China banning the cure and branding all its citizens, even babies as soon as they are born, with their birth age to reveal if they have taken it in the future. They also nuke themselves at one point in the later novel to keep population low. Russia is displayed as a secretive, militia heavy country that has created an ever-growing army of immortal supersoldiers in preparation for war and maintaining strict authority within the nation. The conflict within the Middle East is skimmed over and reduced to people on both sides continuing to kill without much change - an incredibly shallow take on a deep political issue that would be heavily affected by the cure.
Ultimately, the complete lack of charisma and human decency from John makes this novel a bit of a slog to get through. The ending part of the novel is definitely the weakest, as he takes on a strange job as a government-sanctioned hitman and also tries t survive this sheep-flu that renders the world into a zombie apocalypse? It's strange. A lot of missing potential here, sorry not sorry John.
- Leighton Astor was convicted of killing her billionaire father in an attempt to prematurely claim his estate. Her father had a cure age of 62.
- On Ryan Wexler's five hundredth home run: I have no problem with players taking the cure and breaking records and all that. They're just records. But one thing does concern me is how we're going to quantify success from this day forward. How can you be a success or have a legacy if your career - nay, your entire life - has no definite story arc?
-In an interview, Russian president Boris Solovyev vigorously denied numerous reports of police executing any Russian citizen over the cure age of fifty.
The most haunting story by far is one where a delusional mother gave her 8 month year old baby girl the cure, causing the infant to remain an baby forever. The mother didn't want her perfect baby to grow up, as she has raised other children before and they have turned out to be a drug addict and a convict. For her, the child that they used to be has died and will never come back. This incredibly selfish move was reported by the grandmother, and her statement in an inserted interview reveals the full extent of the consequences of the mother's actions. As Emilia will always remain an infant, she will never be able to take care of herself, and always dependent on those around her. What if something happens to the mother in jail? Or the grandmother? Who will take care of her then?
I think about that story a lot, as though I don't believe that any good parent would do that realistically, there is so much horror in being an infant forever and never being able to develop. Does Emilia have consciousness of her condition?
However, I have a lot of criticism for the characters, particularly John, and the almost xenophobic plot points at times during the novel? John is incredibly misogynistic at many times, often objectifying women and pursuing them for the sake of possessing them. Most of the women he interacts with are paper-thin in personality and are damsels-in-distress. From the beginning of the story, the name Solara Beck is mentioned as missing, and we read about how John fawns after this attractive blonde for decades as he believes she has something to do with the murder of his best friend at the time. However, it's revealed later on that she's just a hottie with an "impossible body" as he keeps mentioning that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What a let down! His internal monologue is genuinely gross at times as he acts like a hormonal teenage boy, and he is highly insensitive and not empathetic to lower-income people and even his own family. The novel is told through his personal words and point of view, yet he somehow displays little interest in the political landscape around him and doesn't develop in any significant way. None of the characters really do, they are all cliched, underdeveloped, stand ins for people that don't ever seem to like each other nor have meaningful conversation.
The portrayal of China, Russia, and the conflict within the Middle East is particularly disturbing as well. They are all portrayed as intensely brutally cruel governments, with China banning the cure and branding all its citizens, even babies as soon as they are born, with their birth age to reveal if they have taken it in the future. They also nuke themselves at one point in the later novel to keep population low. Russia is displayed as a secretive, militia heavy country that has created an ever-growing army of immortal supersoldiers in preparation for war and maintaining strict authority within the nation. The conflict within the Middle East is skimmed over and reduced to people on both sides continuing to kill without much change - an incredibly shallow take on a deep political issue that would be heavily affected by the cure.
Ultimately, the complete lack of charisma and human decency from John makes this novel a bit of a slog to get through. The ending part of the novel is definitely the weakest, as he takes on a strange job as a government-sanctioned hitman and also tries t survive this sheep-flu that renders the world into a zombie apocalypse? It's strange. A lot of missing potential here, sorry not sorry John.
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