Summary: Four young siblings visit a fortune teller, who gives them each the date of his/her death.
Rating & Recommendation: 4/5; recommend for anyone who interested in a discussion about quality of life, fear, indulgence
Review: I had been wanting to read The Immortalists for a while, and I can say it was good, not great. The present tense narration is sometimes disorienting, and the prose isn’t anything exceptional but for a few sage passages about loss and loneliness, family, fear.
“I think magic holds the world together... It’s dark matter; it’s the glue of reality, the putty that fills the holes between everything we know to be true. And it takes magic to reveal how inadequate reality really is.”
When the siblings separate as teens, they each live radically different lives in response to the information they were given. The book is laid out in four sections, one for each sibling. I wanted more information on what each sibling was doing during the others’ sections, but the story is pretty gripping.
I love stories about siblings, because you get to dig into the nature vs. nurture argument. I've always found it so fascinating that people with the same genes who are raised in the same house live such wildly different lives. What causes someone to choose the left fork in the road instead of the right? This whole book is basically that. They're given the same information to work with, and each sibling responds so differently. I was engaged.
There’s a certain amount of historical fiction here, especially with Simon and his time in The Castro. I was pleased with the diversity and internationality represented: she covers LGBTQIA, interracial couples, mental health and substance abuse, women’s rights, religious upbringings. I was into all of that. Some of it comes off idealistic, but it's more hopeful than unrealistic. There's a marked difference.
The quandary here is this: Can you really live if you’re in fear of dying? Is there any quality of life if the goal is simply longevity? I think the answer is that living is not the same as defying death.
“In inventing God, we’ve developed the ability to consider our own straits - and we’ve equipped Him with the kind of handy loopholes that enable us to believe we only have so much control. The truth is that most people enjoy a certain level of impotence. But I think we do have control - so much that it scares us to death. As a species, God might be the greatest gift we’ve ever given ourselves. The gift of sanity.”
All in all, it’s a worthwhile read.
Comments