The Postmortal is a 2009 satirical science fiction novel by Drew Magary.The book is presented as a historically preserved diary, following a man named John Farrell from 2019 to 2079. In 2019, scientists find a cure for aging, and it becomes a widespread treatment with just as much backlash as there is support. Despite the novel spanning sixty years, John remains at his “cure age” of 29 throughout, as people come and go throughout his life and the population keeps climbing.
The Postmortal contains examples of:
- All First-Person Narrators Write Like Novelists: While the tone is certainly playful, John writes incredibly eloquently for a divorce lawyer keeping a journal.
- Biological Immortality: “The Cure” is, well, a cure for aging.
- Deconstructed Trope: The entire book is built on this: the political and social results of Biological Immortality.
- Driven to Suicide: John’s father, who doesn’t actively kill himself, but picks up unhealthy habits with the sole, ultimately successful goal of giving himself cancer and then denying treatment. Additionally, the book ends with John readying himself a shot of the same poison he uses as an end specialist.
- Framing Device: In-universe, John’s chronicles are published as a historical account of the Cure age of the “former United States”.
- The Hero Dies: Implied to be the case at the very beginning, which is an in-universe foreword that presents the book as a compilation of digital journal entries found in a long-abandoned shelter. John’s very last entry makes it clear that he injects himself with a deadly poison soon after writing it.“My split second of immortality is over. All that’s left now is the end, which is all any of us ever has. The WEPS battery is dying. I have a shot of SoFlo at the ready. There is no dread. There is only certainty.”
- Immortality Immorality: In-universe opinion; many people oppose the Cure for various reasons, such as the religious stance of the Cure putting off divine judgement, and there are “pro-death” protests and the like.
- Infallible Narrator: Justified in that John apparently records all his conversations and then works them into his journal.
- Living Forever is No Big Deal: While the Cure is a major scientific breakthrough greeted with the expected fanfare and excitement, it eventually becomes a commonplace thing that everyone gets, likened to smartphones.
- Mercy Kill: End specialization is a whole industry.
- Never Grew Up: “Peter Pan cases”, of parents freezing their children’s’ ages, are mentioned. One chapter is a news article about an 8-month-old baby whose mother gave her the Cure.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: Discussed by the character of Julia, who laments getting the Cure at 18.Julia: At least you’re fully formed. You’re a man. What am I? For the past two decades, I’ve been nothing more than jailbait. No one listens to a word I say because they think I still have the brain of a flighty teenager. [...] I see the twenty-six- and twenty-seven-year-old women walking around and think, my God, those are women. Real women. Women who can wear a business suit and look professional. Women who can have careers and cycle husbands and babies and all this shit I’ll never have.
- Nuke 'em: At least five nuclear bombs are dropped over the course of the book.
- Older Than They Look: Everyone. Society collapses on itself before anyone can hit the Really 700 Years Old range.
- Parent-Induced Extended Childhood: Once the "cure" for biological aging becomes common throughout the world, certain parents begin using it on their children - hence referred to as "Peter Pan cases". In one of the newspaper articles collected alongside the main plot, a mother ends up piquing the suspicion of her neighbors when her baby daughter never ages or grows in any way; an investigation quickly reveals that the woman gave her child the cure so that she'd never grow up and leave her. Worse still, since the baby can't age, her mind will never develop either. The article concludes with the mother going to prison for child abuse.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: While his fateful meeting with Solara Beck takes a very different turn, John clearly has this intent when he receives the news about his son’s death, Solara’s name, and the legalization of involuntary euthanasia all at once.“I grabbed my gun and walked out the door. I’m ready to work. I have my purpose. I am the correction.”
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The entire book is built on this: the political and social results of Biological Immortality.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: One of the driving ideas of the book. “End specialization”, or assisted suicide, becomes quite the business later in the story.
