The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
Great books tell a great story. This one tells four.
How would you live if you knew the day you would die? Would it affect your lifestyle or career choice? Would you be more brazen or more cautious? How would your relationships change?
These are some of the questions the children of Saul and Gertie Gold must grapple with after they visit a fortune teller, who gives them the specific date of their deaths. Chloe Benjamin tells us their stories.
And geez, most are well told. I will admit, the novel dragged a bit in the middle, but that part gave readers lots of information about the family dynamics.
Varya, the oldest; Daniel, the practical one; Karla, the dreamer; and Simon, the lover of life, are the children of Jewish immigrants, growing up on the Lower East Side during the 1960s. One day, they hear about and visit the woman on Hester Street, who is said to be able to give you the date of your death. The children, in varying degrees, want to know their futures.
The book then delves into their lives, their choices, and their destinies. It explores how they face, or don't face, the world, and how they draw away from, and occasionally return to, their family and its rituals.
Some of the stories are a bit predictable. And sometimes, an exposition fairy magically reappears at just the right literary time to fill in the details.
But the high points of the book, and their emotive telling, easily overshadow these trivial complaints.
How would you live if you knew the day you would die? Would it affect your lifestyle or career choice? Would you be more brazen or more cautious? How would your relationships change?These are some of the questions the children of Saul and Gertie Gold must grapple with after they visit a fortune teller, who gives them the specific date of their deaths. Chloe Benjamin tells us their stories.
And geez, most are well told. I will admit, the novel dragged a bit in the middle, but that part gave readers lots of information about the family dynamics.
Varya, the oldest; Daniel, the practical one; Karla, the dreamer; and Simon, the lover of life, are the children of Jewish immigrants, growing up on the Lower East Side during the 1960s. One day, they hear about and visit the woman on Hester Street, who is said to be able to give you the date of your death. The children, in varying degrees, want to know their futures.
The book then delves into their lives, their choices, and their destinies. It explores how they face, or don't face, the world, and how they draw away from, and occasionally return to, their family and its rituals.
Some of the stories are a bit predictable. And sometimes, an exposition fairy magically reappears at just the right literary time to fill in the details.
But the high points of the book, and their emotive telling, easily overshadow these trivial complaints.
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