Ohhh, Summer Reading: The Postmortal

I love to read, but for some reason when I am told I have to read something, the magic of reading is taken away from me. However, as far as summer reading goes, The Postmortal, was not horrible. I found the storyline to be quite interesting. One point I have not heard many people bring up in discussion of the story is this: Do you have more than one soulmate? The protagonist, John Farrell, seemed to find the answer to this question - yes.

The whole plot of the story revolves around "the cure," a gene therapy that is able to stop one from aging. John Farrell gets the cure at age 26, an age where one normally begins to settle down and marry. Because the cure was a forever commitment, the life-long commitment of a relationship or marriage were not as important as they used to be. John Farrell had many relationships during the story, and he always seemed to love them. Which leads to the question, do people have more than one soulmate? John's first relationship in the story, Sonya, the woman he had his son with, was a big part of his life. However, knowing he had the cure, he could not make the forever, almost more than life-long commitment of marriage. As his son started to grow up, he formed more relationships. John finally had a chance with his middle school/high school/life-long crush, Allison. Once their relationship started getting serious, he realized he could make a forever commitment to her. He believed she was his destiny, his "soul mate." Then Allison died a horrific death, and he moved on to another woman. Also, earlier in the story his best friend, Katie died in a cure terrorist attack. There was never a relationship between the two, but everyday after she died, he would toast to her. From his point of view, I always got a feeling that he loved Katie more than a friend. Again, what if the cure never existed for John? Which woman would he have ended up with in the end? Who would he love in sickness and in health?

My mum has often brought up the point to me that everyone has more than one soul mate. She believes it just depends on what corner one takes, what aisle one walks on, or what opportunity one decides to take. The Postmortal really made me think about the point my mum has often made to me. If no one were to truly die and live forever, eventually people would get tired of one another, right? Forever is a long time, there would be no expiration date. One could be missing out on another person on the aisle or corner.