Vanity Fair columnist Michael Kinsley escorts his fellow Boomers through the door marked ‘Leave.’

The notorious baby boomers-the largest age cohort in history-are approaching the end and needs to plan their final movements in the overall game of life. Now these are asking: That which was that about? Was it about acquiring points or changing the world? Was it about keeping all of your marbles? Or may be the just thing that counts after you’re gone the popularity you leave behind?

In this series of about Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide essays, Michael Kinsley uses his own struggle with Parkinson’s disease to unearth answers to queries we are all at some time forced to confront. “Occasionally,” he writes, “Personally i think just like a scout from my era, sent out ahead to experience in my fifties what even the healthiest Boomers are going to experience within their sixties, seventies, or eighties.”

This surprisingly cheerful book is at once a fresh assessment of the generation and a frequently funny account of one man’s journey toward the final line. “The least misfortune can perform to make up for itself is usually to be interesting,” he creates. “Parkinson’s disease offers fulfilled that obligation.”