Coming of Age

Who Wants to Live Forever? "Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon," wrote British novelist Susan Ertz. So it would seem that humankind was never designed-emotionally or spiritually, let alone biologically-for long, productive lives. But new, life-extending technologies based on advanced genetics and stem-cell reprogramming are coming at us anyway. Construction magnate John Praxis topples over on the golf course from a massive heart attack. And the attorney who was litigating against him, Antigone Wells, succumbs to a stroke. Both have unfinished business they need to pursue. And they are among the first recipients of the new medical techniques to rebuild failing organs-his heart, her brain-renew deteriorating tissues, and extend their lives almost indefinitely. Coming of Age is a novel of both ideas and action that covers the next century of American history and its probable and improbable impacts on Praxis, Wells, and their extended families through five generations beyond the traditional "three score and ten." In that time, they will experience love and loss, civil war and geologic upheaval, the rise and fall of both personal and national fortunes, the banishment of old age, the rise of thinking machines, the end of work, and the virtual remaking of the American experience.