The Immortalists
It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes. A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.
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Community Reviews
I love a good book with romanticized scenes. The hanging question of, did they choose their fate, or was it their destiny all along? Each character had a unique personality and story. It was slightly confusing and slow in the beginning, but once we got into their stories it was intriguing till the end, each end.
Would you want to know the date of your death? This family drama addresses the havoc this could create among four siblings. The four snuck out to see a gypsy fortuneteller and finding this information as children colored their whole lives. The novel follows them one by one, as they live out their days, long or short. It was a fascinating thought experiment played out within the microcosm of this family. I appreciated the candor in addressing each of the siblings' response to the knowledge and their choices as they live into their lives.
In 1969, the four Gold siblings visit a supposedly mystical woman who can tell the date on which someone will die. The oldest sibling, Varya, is 13 when they receive the prophecy, and learns that she will live to 88. Simon, the youngest sibling at 7, learns that he will die at 20.
Benjamin chooses to tell the siblings' stories consecutively, in order of their death, which took a lot of the suspense out of the question of whether the prophecies were ultimately true, leading me to understand that the driving questions of this book is actually, "Does knowing the date of your death become a self-fulfilling prophecy?" Benjamin seems to take it for granted that we can accept the legitimacy of the prophecy but is so heavy-handed in answering the question of self-fulfillment that the stories of what happen to the siblings seems very shallow.
Benjamin chooses to tell the siblings' stories consecutively, in order of their death, which took a lot of the suspense out of the question of whether the prophecies were ultimately true, leading me to understand that the driving questions of this book is actually, "Does knowing the date of your death become a self-fulfilling prophecy?" Benjamin seems to take it for granted that we can accept the legitimacy of the prophecy but is so heavy-handed in answering the question of self-fulfillment that the stories of what happen to the siblings seems very shallow.
I would have to warn a reader about the graphic sex included in the story if I were to recommend this book. There are some interesting observations in the book but it takes a long road to get to a few good points. Not my kind of story. It was an uncomfortable read for me. Sometimes the writing took so many twists and turns that I found it hard to follow (or care). I didn't understand the characters relationships with their family or why they seemed so unhappy.
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