Growing Young by Dean Warren
01/09/2002 . Source: Katie McGivern 
Pub: Xlibris Corporation. 369 enlarged paperback. Price: $19.54 (US). ISBN: 1-4010-5162-6. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. Check out website: www.Xlibris.com
 Dr
Mark Langer is an ageing man with a heart condition - he has an
estimated six months to live. That is until Jared Hull leads him
to Dr Susan Bastain and Mark becomes one of the agelessness - his
cells can renew themselves.
Dean Warren then takes us on a roller coaster ride charting what
happens when immortality is dangled before an immoral society.
I approached this books with some trepidation - the blurb on the
back cover that this novel was ‘thinking men's science fiction’,
I wondered if I would have to curl up beside the literary equivalent
of Carol Vorderman, instead this book was like ‘The Avengers’ Emma
Peel - smart, funny and with a good self-awareness running through
it.
The characters are two dimensional (especially the women) and there
are weakness in the plot but the tone of the novel is mocking towards
itself and so overrides these flaws Dean Warren is exploring the
balance between self-interest and society.
He places the story in a future where the unemployed and disadvantaged
are sterilised and living on state handouts. He takes a close and
searching look at the attitudes and beliefs of both 'welfies' and
'achievers'. It is almost too brutally honest. The greedy and the
manipulative only give in when forced to.
It was depressing that I could not disagree with the conclusions
draw with Dean Warren. The key to the whole story is: ‘Soon his
poor heart would surrender for good
. To hell with hand wringing about other people’ - page 28. It
is not some dry essay - it is a very witty novel. The main character,
Dr Mark Langer, is a cross between Bill Clinton and James Bond,
with the combined pulling powers of both!
The ghetto gangsters and Jared Hull (a man so bad that you want
to throw orange peel at him!) are gloriously well done and help
the story to travel along like a raft on the river rapids.
If you like the wry cynicism of ‘Dr Strangelove’ or ‘Stark’ by
Ben Elton then this book should be on your reading list. It explores
important human issues in a funny and very immensely readable novel.
Katie MacGivern
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