It is difficult to rate the book as a whole, for the first two of the three parts were excellent. I found it to be a faster-paced read than most fiction, yet I still learned quite a bit.

The writing style is that of a memoir. It is, essentially, a memoir of the parts of the author's life wherein he learned about gerontology. We begin by finding out that the reason aging is so hard to study is because, as opposed to our orderly and predictable development, aging is chaotic. Every person ages differently. This provides natural arguments for almost any theory, making it difficult to narrow down the field. We go on to learn several different theories and possible solutions to the problem of aging, which were fascinating. I liked how the author explains the theories in several different ways to ensure comprehension. I disliked how many references there were to the Bible and to Shakespeare. Referencing religious texts decreases the credibility of any science book.

The third part of the book was a huge disappointment. I thought the author would go further in depth into current research and findings, but instead he completely changed directions. The science book turned into a philosophy text, with the author discussing different opinions on the desirability and feasibility of immortality. The one part of this section that interested me as food for thought: hydra (multicellular creatures) live forever. They do that by constantly shedding old cells and growing new ones. The price they pay for living forever, then, is that their memories are replaced along with the old cells and they have no historical memory.