The Incontrovertibility of Rainbows

This dystopian tale of a near-future America offers a glib take on lengthening life expectancies and their social, political, and economic ramifications. In 2047, America is a gerontocracy in which a glut of octogenarians and nonagenarians are diverting much of the nation's finances into elder care. Fed up with disenfranchisement and dim prospects for their generation, the Young People Party, under the guidance of physician Wolfe Wolfe, get out the vote and succeed in winning many 2048 elections. Shortly thereafter, Wolfe spearheads "the Cure," a program of mandatory euthanasia for all Americans age 74 and older, designed to reduce the country's bloated population by 100 million. Stiff prose and underdeveloped characters that are little more than mouthpieces for polemical views do little to lend credibility to this tale's more outrageous extrapolations of a potentially real-life healthcare crisis. At best, this book's anonymous author has produced a mash-up of ideas already tackled in Brave New World, Wild in the Streets, Logan's Run, and similar cautionary tales.