Introduction:
Gypsies, prophecies, magicians, oh my! This book features four siblings who visit a fortune teller as children who foretells when they are each going to die. It seems like such a tragic experience for someone of such a tender young age, but curiosity gets the best of them. Or rather, it does for the oldest brother, as he is the one who drags them to meet her. It’s hard to imagine learning something so eye opening – would YOU want to know?! This is the concept that intrigued me as a reader, as death is the inevitable fact of life that some of us wish to avoid. Knowing when death will arrive would cause such fear and anxiety within me that I don’t think I could handle the truth!
The concept is quite compelling and reminded me of “When” by Victoria Laurie, except this book goes deeper into each character’s life as they face the inevitable truth of their prophecy. The psychology of what happens to their psyche as they draw closer to their “death date” varies for each person, which in turn impacts how each decides to live her/his life. Once the siblings learn the dates of their death, the novel then dives into each sibling, explaining how they have either altered their lives based on the prediction or how the prediction comes to life (pun intended).
My Review
There were elements of this novel that I thoroughly enjoyed – the historical references that actually happened (all the monumental events that happened in 1969 as well as the Jaws of Life over Broadway that occurred in 1932 – so incredible), the idea of fortune tellers, and wondering how people would change their lives if they knew the ultimate secret (when they will die). If you are looking for a novel that provides an in-depth view into familial bonds (or lack thereof) and strong characters to analyze, all wrapped up in novel that keeps you turning the page, I recommend this one.
It was an enjoyable read, if you’re focused on Simon and Klara’s story, but Daniel and Varya’s story wasn’t as enthralling – their stories were not as complex as the first two and I did not form any literature-based bonds with them.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Drink Pairing:
The Reads Well With Others Book Club had some GREAT drink options to pair with this one!
Since Simon is our first character and is so extravagant with his lifestyle in San Francisco, we suggested a Rainbow shot! It’s colorful, hits the spot just right, and shows that you’re in the mood to party. I found a great option online that fills 10 shot glasses in the colors of the rainbow! Find the recipe by clicking the link below the photo. Be sure to take photos of you trying this at home!!
Since the book goes deep into each sibling’s story, some of them hitting harder than others, we also recommend a Long Island Iced Tea. This drink adds alllll the liquor into one glass, which will help to ease the pain of knowing the truth about each character. I found a great option here: Long Island Iced Tea. Talk about a stiff drink! Pun intended…
My last recommendation is a straight up Tequila shot. Just like Klara is biting into the Jaws of life, you can bite into a lime to save yourself from the burn. I personally love me some Patron! The recipe for this one is easy – lick the salt off your hand, take the tequila shot, and bite for dear life into the lime – all while reminiscing about poor Klara.
If you’d like to give it a try (and support local bookstores), find the book here: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin on Bookshop.org
If you’d like to check out the book on Amazon, find the book here: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Spoiler Alert: Summary and Guiding Questions
In the Prologue, we are introduced to five siblings, “Varya, the eldest; Daniel, eleven; Klara, nine; and Simon, seven” (11).
Daniel has overheard a few boys talking about a woman who can “tell fortunes. What’ll happen in your life – whether you’ll have a good one or a bad one. And…she can say when you’ll die” (14).
The children wish to go see her, so they begin to find out more about her from their neighbors. They meet with quite a few different people who have had their fortunes read by her – and she had correctly predicted their future and one woman’s exact death date.
They discover her apartment building and anxiously walk inside. Klara boldly knocks on the door and then she is the first to go inside. The woman requests to see them one at a time, but each child enters without the other coming back out. Each child has gone inside and Varya now waits outside, with timid and anxious anticipation.
When Varya enters the room, she begins to feel guilty; she has learned in her Hebrew culture that it is wrong to idolize, and she realizes that her parents would not want her to be there. She justifies it by thinking, “didn’t God make the fortune teller, just as He made Varya’s parents? In synagogue, Varya tries to pray, but God never seems to respond. The rishika, at least, will talk back” (25).
Q: The rishika quotes Heraclitus, “character is fate.” Do you believe this to be true?
After a few minutes with the rishika, she reads her palm and tells her that her date of death will be January 21st, 2044. She will live to be 88 years old! Immediately after, though, Varya senses the woman change, as does her belief in the fortune. “The woman’s eyes lose their luster, her movements their elegance. It is too good, the fortune Varya has been given, and her good fortune becomes proof of the seer’s fraudulence…she is a swindler, a con artist” (28).
Q: Why does her opinion so quickly change?
When Varya heads outside to meet her siblings, they are all discouraged and silent. Simon, the youngest, becomes quite distraught at dinner.
Part One: You’d Dance, Kid. Simon 1978-1982
Saul, their father, has died; his heart stopped suddenly while he is just crossing the street. Simon is in shock, considering him and his father never had an engaging relationship. It was not always that way – he frequently visited his father’s tailor shop, being doted on by his employees. But once he became a teenager, the shop bored him, especially when he knew his future might include him taking on the family business. “Most of all, he felt something far more confusing: that the shop was Saul’s true home, and that his employees knew him better than his children ever did” (37).
After the funeral and sitting Shiva, the siblings sit in the attic, discussing their immediate plans over cups of bourbon. Klara, who is about to graduate high school and does not plan to go to college, redirects the conversation to the fortune teller they saw over a decade ago. Each of them admits to when she said they would die, against what the rishika said before. Klara says she will die at 31, Daniel at 48 (though he does not believe it to be true), and Simon says he will die young, but does not say the exact age.
Knowing that Daniel & Varya are leaving the next morning to go back to school, and Klara is ready to leave as soon as it is revealed to her, “fury blooms in [his] chest. For a moment he resents them all” (43). Klara suggests that he come with her, but he still has two years left in high school. She mentions San Francisco and it is revealed that he is gay. “Vaginas have never appealed to him: their cabbage-like folds, their long, hidden corridor” (45).
He knows that in San Francisco, he could live for himself. He thinks of the woman on Hester Street, the fortune teller, and wonders if she was right. “The mere thought turns his life a different color; it makes everything feel urgent, glittering, precious” (46).
Q: If you knew you were going to die young, would you make the decision to drop out of high school and move across the country?
He makes the decision to do it – his sister has now graduated, and he will be following her to San Francisco, without his mother’s knowledge. She will be pursuing magic, while he is running away from a life he does not want to live. As they leave in the wee hours of the morning, his mother catches him. He is able to leave, but he can see that she knows the truth.
All that uncertainness drifts away, though, when they immerse themselves into their new city. “To have wanted this for so long – to have it both at last and so early – makes him feel as though he is glimpsing his future life” (53).
Him and his sister live it up on their first night out on the town – Simon gets riled up by a man he meets at the club, and they quickly make it back to his apartment. Within a short amount of time, Simon receives his first blow job and “gasps in amazement and exquisite, long-dream-of pleasure. It is better than he imagined it would be – it is agonizing, mindless bliss” (56). Inevitably, this leads to him and “Ian” (he would not divulge his real name) having sex, and Simon losing his virginity.
When the next morning comes, and his partner leaves, he experiences a sense of anxiety and dread thinking about his sister and then his mother, “what kind of person is he, to do this to his mother?” (58)
Q: Have you ever experienced this type of anxiety or guilt after a night of partying and crazy behavior?
He decides to call his mother, but his brother Daniel answers instead. He came home from college when their mother was hysterically freaking out when she discovered her son was missing. His brother tries his best to convince him to come home, but Simon cries that he is not coming back.
His sister tries looking for a variety of different jobs but is not having luck. He decides to put in an application for the gay club right below their apartment and is hired as a dancer. His first night goes well in his mind, but his manager suggests he take up ballet to learn some new dance moves. He struggles immensely but knows that he must become like the other male dancers “expert, majestic, invincibly strong” (71).
Simon continues to have the time of his life, which includes sleeping with a variety of men and attending gay pride festivities. Klara, on the other hand, is not enjoying her lack of career options or her nagging family demanding that Simon come back home. She also reveals that the city is full of gay mean – not gay women or straight men, so she is not having as much ‘fun’ as he is having.
Q: Do you think Simon is too into himself to worry about anyone else or is he just having fun and Klara is jealous about it?
Simon bites back at her instead, “You never think. You know exactly how to get into something and you know how to bring me with you, but you never think about what the consequences will be – or maybe you think about them and you just don’t care…And now you’re blaming me?” (75).
Q: Did Simon think about the consequences of moving to San Francisco or is he just avoiding the truth?
Later, after arriving home from ballet practice, there is a cop waiting outside his apartment for him. He takes him down to the station where a phone call is made to his mother. She begs him to come home, but he tells her that this is the life he wants to choose for himself, just like she is living the life she chose, but she does not agree.
After a short argument, his mother finally says, “If you’ve made your decision, I don’t want you coming back…You made your choice – you left us. So live with it, then” (83). When she hangs up on him, essentially giving him the opportunity to live the life he chooses he suddenly feels “a spike of fear: the filter has been taken off the lens, the safety net ripped from beneath his feet, and he is dizzy with dreadful independence” (84).
Simon begins a relationship with a black man who also attends the Academy (where he takes his ballet lessons). They have kept their relationship a secret, mostly because they attend the Academy together. Since Robert is black and gay, he is prone to intense discrimination. He recalls the story of why he moved to San Francisco in the first place – while on a high school football team, he is caught having sex with one of the players. The other boy ends up losing his life to a group of guys who beat him to death.
At a party, Robert and Simon sit outside in the garden. Simon realizes that he would like this type of life, “a career, a house, a partner. He’s always assumed these things are not for him…it is not only Simon’s gayness that makes him feel this way. It’s the prophecy, too, something…[he] has dragged behind him all these years” (96). Then, Robert tells him that he got a new place and wants him to be his roommate; Simon tingles with excitement.
Q: How would it feel to live life knowing when you were going to die, especially being unsure if it was true?
Klara meets him for dinner once a week; one night she tells him she has learned more about the grandmother she is named after. She was a vaudeville and circus star who entertained with acts from burlesque to death defying feats. Klara expresses that she would like to do the incredible act – the Jaws of Life – along with magic. However, when their grandmother performed the act in Times Square, she fell and died.
Q: Look up on YouTube the Jaws of Life over Broadway that occurred in 1932. Can you imagine how incredible this was to see in person?
Simon and Robert continue their blissful lives together, performing in different ballet acts and becoming the stars of the show. They spend two years together, but when Simon looks back and thinks of their life together, it seems so short. He loves Robert; he is “intelligent, mature and surprising” but Simon likes “raunch, likes being spanked and ogled and sucked off, and he has some appetite for depravity” (106).
Then, something terrible begins to happen in the gay community – a “gay cancer” starts to occur in the people they know: “purple splotches, raised and rippling like burns” (107). His friends at the club start experiencing the symptoms, one of them dying quickly after discovering a spot on his eye. Nobody knows how the disease is spreading, so Robert suggests that they stay in their home.
“Simon is panicked by the thought of quarantine. He already feels cut off from the world, and he refuses to hide, refuses to believe this is the end. And yet he knows…or at least he fears – the thin line between fear and intuition…that the woman is right, and that by June 21st, the first day of summer, he’ll be gone too” (109).
Q: What do you think life was like for the gay community during this time? Can you imagine how unsafe and unsure they felt?
Unfortunately, Simon and Robert get into an argument about Simon continuing to work at the dance club and Robert loses it. “You’re just like the rest of them, all the twinks and the art fags and the motherfucking bears…you go on about your rights and your freedoms, you cheer at all the parades, but…you want the right to be as careless as any other white guy” (110). Later that night, he cheats on him with a coworker from the dance club. Apparently, though, it is not the first time he has strayed; he describes the multitude of men he has been with, and there seems to be no shame for his behavior.
Later, at home, Robert discovers the purple splotch on his stomach and immediately takes him to the hospital. It is the month of June, which means that he will be dying soon; his symptoms start to worsen and people in his Ward (the one where all the patients go with this disease) are dying around him. On June 13th, Simon decides to tell Robert about the woman who foretold his death.
“I always knew I’d die young. That’s why I did what I did…why I left Ma” (118). He tries to finish, but he struggles to keep his thoughts above water, as if he’s drowning. But he tries to stay positive to Klara who is absolutely heartbroken. “Look what she gave me…I would never have come to San Francisco if it weren’t for her. I wouldn’t have met Robert. I’d never have learned to dance. I’d probably still be home, waiting for my life to begin” (119).
Klara knew from the moment he said he was to die young, that she wanted him to have everything he ever wanted; it was her reason for encouraging him to come to California and start his life.
“Why, in his years with Robert, has he had such trouble expressing love? As the days become longer, Simon says it over and over: I love you, I love you, that call and response, as essential to the body as food or breath. It is only when he hears Robert’s reply that his pulse slows, his eyes close, and he is able, at last, to sleep” (121).
Q: How emotional was this for you? How did this ending make you feel?
Part Two: Proteus. Klara 1982 – 1991
By 1988 Klara is still performing her Breakaway act and magic tricks, but it has lost its novelty. She ends up running into a friend, named Raj, whom she met when she first arrived in the city. She expresses to him that she has grown tired of her show, “you perform in the same place for years, word gets around, the hype swells and then it dies you’re still there…hanging from a rope by your teeth” (130). She would improve her act in big ways, if only she had the right equipment, a full-time assistant, and the knowledge of how to do the actual tricks.
She LOVES the allure of magic and how it’s used “not to negate reality but to peel back its scrim, revealing reality’s peculiarities and contradictions. The very best magic tricks, the kind Klara wants to perform, do not subtract from reality. They add” (132).
She and Raj begin to work together to improve her tricks and he signs on as her assistant. He wants to try and build her brand to be even bigger, maybe even change her name from The Immortalist to something based on her Transformative magic tricks. She is in love with Raj, his “jolt of energy, his genius in animating objects…[his] straight dark hair…and she loves his name, Rajanikant Chamar” (136).
Together they form a perfect team – creating new acts and equipment they can use on stage. But Klara cannot help the negative thoughts that swarm her mind, “her father’s absence, her mother’s disappointment. She thought of how badly she wished Simon could see her now” (138). Due to this, she drinks until she blacks out and the thoughts go away.
Klara recounts when she went back home for Simon’s funeral, having to face the family she left behind years prior, without much contact. They are especially angry with how often they called and left messages for Simon, with no response, and Klara going along with it, keeping his secrets.
She felt “burned constantly with guilt. She saw it now: her brother’s departure was the bomb that blew them apart, even more than Saul’s death. Varya and Daniel were sidelined by resentment, Gertie by suffering. And if Klara had not urged Simon to go, would he still be alive? She was the one who believed in the prophecies; she was the one who managed his trajectory” (142-143).
Q: Why do you think she didn’t communicate with her family often? Should she have encouraged Simon to do so?
Back in San Francisco, the show must go on; Klara notices the cop that took her brother in years ago has followed her act in three different places. She confronts him, cursing him out for mentioning her brother. To her surprise he says, “Your brother was young. I was hard on him. I’d like to apologize” (147). Then, he expresses to her that her show has changed him. He tells her of his younger obsession with comic books and how his father had shunned the idea. He left it all behind and moved on with his life, but when he watched her show he saw how “it was possible to more than you were – more than you started out being. I guess one way to put it is you gave me faith…maybe I’m not too far gone yet” (149). Klara is stunned that she finally reminded someone of the beauty of magic!
Q: What are your thoughts on the encounter with the officer?
Klara visited New York City once more to be with her family and their bond begins to strengthen. She still misses Simon incredibly. “She’d lost both him and herself…whole chunks of life that only Simon had witnessed…her was her baby brother, her favorite person on earth” (151). She even begins to hear noises in her home that she believes to be him.
Klara and Raj have a baby together – a little girl named Ruby. Her family comes to visit them in California, and they help to fill the spaces of the void she feels without her father and Simon. Since having a child, they have been unable to do performances; Raj suggests taking their show on the road and moving away from San Francisco…maybe even Vegas!
That night, she stayed up late to practice her magic – something she has always done since she was a child; she liked the quiet solitude. She thought of how her mother never approved of her magic; she expected that Klara would outgrow it and hopefully go off to college. “This was why Klara could leave home weeks after his death, why she could do such a thing without hating herself: because it was not her mother who was gone but her father, who had stayed up with her on long nights in perfect quiet” (163) watching her practice different tricks.
After thinking it through, and of her father, she knows the right decision to make. “She’s always thought of home as a physical destination, but perhaps Raj and Ruby are home enough. Perhaps home, like the moon, will follow wherever she goes” (165).
They buy a motor home and hit the road to various places that will have them. While Raj is out marketing, Karla is at home with the baby, occasionally drinking her stress away. “The blackouts and retching have been replaced by something steadier, harder to detect: a low-grade but constant remove from the facts of her life” (167-168).
She talks to her family rarely and she is shocked at how much she misses them. She has yet to divulge that the woman on Hester Street was right about Simon’s death. As she thinks about her own predicted death, she wonders, “was the woman as powerful as she seemed, or did Klara take steps that made the prophecy come true?” (170).
She has also continued to hear the knocks from her dead brother in the night. She decides to use timing (as they do in their magic shows) to see if there is a message he wants to send her. She must stop, though, when Ruby wakes up and then Raj.
Q: Do you think the knocks are real?
She admits that she is unhappy, and Raj agrees; they are making more money, but not enough to support themselves. She recommends that they find real jobs, something they are good at and will pay the bills.
“You were talented. You were brilliant. First time I saw you…I thought…she’s different. Your dreams were too big and your hair was too long, it kept getting tangled in the ropes, but you spun at the ceiling like nothing I’d seen and I thought you might never come down. I’m not ready to give up. And I don’t think you are either” (172).
Raj continues to encourage her and their dreams and convinces her that it is time to move to Vegas. He knows it will be their ticket to success and fame. Once they arrive, they book an audition at The Mirage; they give it their all and the men watching are not impressed. “Klara and Raj have been trying to be Siegfried and Roy. In the process, Klara forgot the old, humble magic on which she was raised. She forgot herself” (182). She decides to bring out her trusty old black box, that includes the hand magic tricks she grew up with – the ones she is hoping will impress the executives.
“Reality is not enough…it’s not enough to explain what we don’t understand…It’s not enough to account for the inconsistencies we see and hear and feel…It’s not enough on which to pin our hopes, our dreams – our faith…Some magicians say that magic shatters your worldview. But I think magic holds the world together” (185-186). Her performance steals the show, and they are ready to hire them!
At the same time, she is continuing to hear the knocks. Using her timing trick, she can spell out the word, Meet. Now, the knocks are getting louder, even though she does not want to continue hearing them. Right before their first dress rehearsal, she listens for the knocks. “Meet me” and then “Us.”
Q: What do you think it means when the knocks signal her to meet them – do you believe they want her to die?
Raj catches her in the bathroom – Ruby has gotten into the soap, and it is all over her face and he realizes she has been drinking. “Do you just think I’ll always be here to pick up the pieces?” He explains to her where she would be if it wasn’t for him, “You’d be a drunk…the only reason you’re still doing what you’re doing is because I met you” (192-193). She tries to defend herself, but he just shuns her, “Why do you think I don’t talk to you about my problems, real problems? It’s ‘cause you can’t take it. You don’t have space in your head for anyone’s problems but yours” (194).
The real problem is that Klara now has 4 days left to live, according to the fortune teller…and it just so happens to be on opening night. “If the woman is right, if she could see Simons’ death in 1969, then there’s magic in the world: some strange, shimmering knowledge in the very heart of the unknowable. It doesn’t matter whether or when Klara dies; she can communicate with Ruby just as she does with Simon now. She can cross boundaries, like she always wanted to” (196).
Q: Do you wonder why she chooses not to tell Raj about her death? Do you think that she will be able to escape death?
Q: What is your interpretation of how she views death and being able to cross boundaries?
On opening night, Raj expresses how much he loves her and how much faith he has in her. He does not believe in her magic, but he believes in her; she is an artist, an entertainer, a star. Klara, though, thinks Raj and Ruby already “feel like ghosts, like people she used to know” (198).
She wants to prove the woman’s prophecies right…and to do so, she must prove it to herself. So, she ties a rope around a light fixture to hang herself! She waits for a sign, a knock to confirm that she should continue; if she does not hear one, she will go back to her performance with Raj. “The knocks are insistent now, they’re coming fast as hail. Yes, they tell her. Yes, yes, yes” (202).
“January 1st, 1991, just like the woman promised. Klara takes her hands, and they tumble through the dark, dark sky. They flutter crisply as leaves, so small in the infinite universe; they turn and flicker, turn again. Together, they illuminate the future, even from so far away” (203).
Q: “One more moment to hold Ruby and Raj in her mind; she’ll speak to them soon.” Why does she feel like she has to do this?! Why doesn’t she speak to them in real life?
Part Three: The Inquisition. Daniel 1991 – 2006
The story of Daniel begins when he met Mira, his fiancé. The first topic of conversation is around religion, “I see religion as a pinnacle of human achievement. 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” (208).
Once he marries Mira, he is absolutely elated; looking into her eyes he feels a sense of “peace pulsed outward, pushing pain to the perimeter of his consciousness…Please, God…may this last” (209-210).
Q: Were you surprised after one chapter the author went straight to 2006?
Daniel and his siblings are not close, and he wishes they were. He had a near death experience (almost drowned at the beach) at a young age that made him realize the depth of love he had for them. They, however, did not reciprocate the same type of feelings. He could not understand why they did not feel the same way, “the regret of separation, and the bliss of being returned…as the years passed and they did not [feel the way he did], he became wounded and despairing, then bitter” (219).
While up late one night, he searches for Raj and Ruby’s website – apparently, they have a magic show together in Vegas! The last time Daniel saw them, Raj was teaching Ruby how to do the Jaws of Life; this concerns Daniel who could not “fathom why Raj would want to re-create the image of Klara hanging from a rope via her daughter.” Raj believes he is “keeping her memory alive” (220). Even though they have not spoken in years, he decides to email Raj, inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner.
Q: Do you agree that this is a bit much?
He reminisces back to his sister’s service in San Francisco. While at a bar, crying his eyes out in pain, he meets Eddie O’Donoghue, the cop who took Simon in for being a runaway so many years ago and then who flirted with Klara after he attended some of her shows. The cop expresses that he was in love with Klara, but she obviously did not feel the same. He ended up getting a job in Vegas and learned of her show; he planned to attend the opening night performance. When he arrived at the Mirage, he saw her there and followed her up to the Penthouse, where she ended up hanging herself. He had tried banging on the door to get her attention (the knocks she had heard, along with him calling out her name), but he could not get in until later – when it was too late. “At first I didn’t know what I was seeing. I thought she was practicing. She was strung up on the rope, like in her show; she was spinning, just barely; but the bit hung off beside her jaw” (233).
The officer wanted to investigate the death, to ensure that it was or was not suicide, and asks Daniel if he has any leads. Daniel divulges to him about the fortune teller they met on Hester Street; especially since he remembers Klara had told the siblings her death age would be 31.
Fifteen years later, Eddie calls to meet with him to discuss some new information about Klara’s case. However, it is because Eddie wants to show him the Costello family – a fortune telling fraud family of 18 people who have now been charged with multiple crimes. The sister of the matriarch just so happens to be the woman on Hester Street. The officer explains that there have been several people linked to this woman who have committed suicide, just like his sister.
“Daniel has not forgotten his date – the twenty-fourth of November, this year – but neither has he given it credence. Most of the people he knows who died young were the unlucky recipients of hellish diagnoses” (243).
Q: Would you take it seriously if someone told you the day you were going to die?
After the meeting, he thinks of how his wife, Mira, does not know anything about the fortune teller; he has been too afraid of what she might think, even though he does not believe it to be true. “He feared she would see in him an alignment with Klara: her eccentricity, her lack of reason. Even her illness. And he was not aligned with Klara” (246).
Raj and Ruby arrive at their home and things are going quite well; however, Daniel notices the affluent accessories and clothing they have, and he decides to research more about them. They are apparently millionaires in Vegas – how did he not know? Ruby is kind and considerate, even listening intently to Gertie’s (Daniel’s mom) detailed medical stories during dinner. Daniel opposes, but Ruby insists she continue the story at home. “Gertie flushes with a pleasure so rare that Daniel nearly reaches for Ruby to thank her” (256).
Q: Daniel says that Simon, “thought only of his own pleasure. One could not go on that way forever.” Why not?
Daniel thinks back to the conversation he had with Eddie, the officer, and how he said that “what innate vulnerability Klara had may have been triggered, or compounded, but her visit to the fortune teller.” This would mean that “Klara and Simon believed they had taken pills with the power to change their lives, not knowing they had taken a placebo – not knowing that the consequences originated in their own minds” (257-258).
After he spends some time thinking over his life – how he tried to be a leader for his siblings, how he and Mira do not plan on having children because she is unable to, how he wishes he had been closer throughout the years with his siblings – he realizes the fortune teller needs to be caught, “not just for Simon and Klara, but for himself, now, too” (263). He calls Eddie to give him some new information he had not shared before and then learns her name – Bruna Costello.
Over Thanksgiving dinner, Mira inquiries about a magic trick she experienced as a child and how she always wondered how it was done. Raj says that magicians are “incredibly rational…they’re analysts. You have to be, to develop illusions. To trick people” (273). But Daniel knows this is not how his sister Klara saw magic. “Klara knew that magic can be used to deceive people. But she tried to do the opposite – to reveal some greater truth. To pull the wool off” (273-274).
Instead of the conversation staying on magic, Raj blasts Daniel with anti-war comments, geared towards his distaste of Daniel’s career (confirming troops are well enough to go to war). Then Raj makes a grave mistake – he criticizes Israel and the Jews for being in favor of the war and that they “act as though they’re still the victims of terrible oppression” (276). This, of course, is incredibly insensitive to discuss at the dinner table of a family of Jews.
Daniel and Raj take their conversation outside, and it becomes quite heated. Raj says he has a successful career but sees through him, “Even your own daughter thinks you’re nothing but a Vegas showman…You stole Klara’s act…you were cocky. You cared more about the show than you did about her” (277-278). Daniel feels sudden conviction with every word that the spews out.
Raj knows the truth about Klara though and divulges all of it, even though it makes him sound like he was the one to have all the glory, “Do you know how fucked up she was? Did any of you know? She blacked out. Her memory was in pieces. She wouldn’t have gotten dressed in the morning if it wasn’t for me” (278-279).
The day after Thanksgiving is Daniel’s day of death. When Eddie calls him to let him know they are dropping the case against Bruna Costello, the fortune teller, Daniel finally admits his date. “He can’t save Simon and Klara. They belong to the past. But perhaps he can change the future. The irony is impeccable: on the very day that Bruna Costello prophesied his death, he can find her and force her to confess how she took advantage of them. And then he’ll make sure she never does it again” (285).
Q: Is he wanting to seek revenge by finding her and killing her?
He looks up where she possibly lives and decides to take the drive. It will take about 10 hours, but he wants her to apologize for what she has done to his family. His mother, Gertie, knows there is something up, but he brushes her off with strong hostility when she mentions it is a holy day, “God doesn’t give a rat’s ass.” He then becomes enraged in his thoughts, “God did not watch over Simon and Klara, and he certainly has not brought justice…. [he now sees God differently]. God should not be designed based on personal preference…he should not be a product of human longing” (288). Then, just before leaving, he grabs a loaded gun to take with him.
When he arrives to the area, he travels to a waterfall where he struggles to walk through and around the gorge. It is late at night, past ten, but he is determined to find her trailer. Surprisingly, he finds it on a piece of flat land near the waterfall.
Q: Does this seem believable to you? Does it seem odd that he would happen to find it in the middle of the night, just on his own intuition?
He walks right into her home and demands to speak with her. “I remember you. You came to see me in New York. You had your siblings, they were there. Two girls and a little boy” (293). He immediately expects answers about her life and why she did what she did so many years ago. He fires gunshots into the floor and into the roof to shake her into speaking more. He even points it at her face, to scare her into telling his truth, but is it hers? When he sees tears in her eyes he wonders, “Perhaps she’s telling the truth. Perhaps her family feels as remote to her as Klara and Simon and Saul do to Daniel – like part of another lifetime” (294).
She admits that she left her family behind because she wanted more from her life; she knew they were using their gifts to be dishonest and backward. She wanted to be a nurse and equated telling people the date of their deaths to help them know what was going to happen to them; a way to help them live, knowing when they were going to die.
Suddenly, they both hear footsteps coming toward the trailer; Daniel hears Eddie call his name and he realizes Mira must have discovered his plan due to the evidence left on and near his computer. “He has so rarely acted with courage. So now he will – for Simon…for Klara…for Saul…and for Gertie, who lost them all.” He raises the gun to Bruna’s head, even though Eddie watches with his gun drawn. “The freedom, the expansiveness, of thinking he is innocent: it fills and lifts him like helium” (299).
The chapter ends, as does his story, so you are left wondering if he shot Bruna, which inevitably caused Eddie to shoot him.
Q: What do you predict happened?
Q: Do you believe that Daniel’s story was not as in depth as the other siblings?
Q: How do you feel about what happened? Does it align with his character?
Part Four: Place of Life. Varya 2006 – 2010
We are introduced to Varya who works at a laboratory for monkeys; by the description, it is assumed she cares deeply about her work and takes it very seriously. The scene is Varya meeting with a journalist, who plans to be there for the week.
The laboratory she works in conducts research on longevity, “you say antiaging and people think of science fiction, cryonics and whole-brain emulation. But the Holy Grail, for us, is not just to enhance life span. It’s to enhance health span – the quality of late life” (311).
The journalist begins to question her reasoning for wanted to extend life; he mentions that there are people who believe the human life span is already long enough and that some would argue that the focus should be on environmental conservation instead of human life.
Q: Do you believe it is important to focus on both or only one?
She had originally not wanted to study primates, as she was focused on studying yeast and its effect on extending life span, but she decided to change her career to studying primates because it would have a greater impact on the world. She “always told herself that she did her research out of love – love for life, for science, and for her siblings, who hadn’t lived long enough to reach old age – but at heart, she worried that her primary motivation was fear. Fear that she had no control, that life slipped through one’s fingers no matter what” (325).
She begins to give clues to her fear of germs – she laid awake one night watching the ceiling to see if dirt would fall on her; she barely touches a seat when she sits down; she stays away from the monkeys as much as she can, especially since they carry deadly diseases. And now, she divulges the real reason why she did not come to visit during Thanksgiving, even though she knew his death date was the day after. “She “did not think she could stand to witness it – or perhaps it was that, if she were there, she would responsible. She still feared she might catch or transmit something terrible, as though her luck was both bad and contagious. The best thing she could do for Daniel was stay away” (333).
Q: If she knows she will live to be 88 years old, why does she spend her life in fear?
She then describes her reasoning for living in constant fear and anxiety – she trained herself to believe that she could take steps, unrelated to an event, to stop bad things from happening. For example, she would blow out all the candles on her birthday cake quickly and in doing so, would stop something awful from happening to Simon. She has OCD which caused “constant handwashing…avoidance of public restrooms and Laundromats and hospitals and touching doors and subway seats and other people’s hands, all the rituals that safeguarded every hour, every day” (335). She is literally afraid of EVERYTHING that could cause her harm.
After the week-long interview with the journalist, he invites her to go out for wine. She does not want to go, but there is something that pulls her anyway. She divulges the history of her siblings, and it instantly makes her uneasy, even more so after the amount of wine she drinks. He says, “is this why you do the work you do? The medications we have now – well, they would have saved your brother’s life, if they’d been available back then. And genetic testing could make it possible to detect an individual’s risk of mental illness…that might have saved Klara, right?” (346).
She ends up running away and sleeping in her car. The next day, she heads to her office to work, even though it is Saturday, and to her surprise, Luke is there. Twenty-six years ago, she stood outside of a Planned Parenthood, ready to make the decision to terminate a pregnancy that occurred after sleeping with her professor. She “wondered what would happen if she did not quash that flutter [inside her]. She could make the choice she had planned to make; her life could continue on as it had been before the aberration and so remain symmetrical” (353). So, Luke is not a journalist, but rather, her son.
She is angered he lied, but he knew it would be the only way to speak with her. She allows him to come back to her condo to ask her the questions one would ask if they had been given away at birth. She is surprised she did not recognize him, even though he had been reminded of her brother Daniel.
“She has imagined it – coming face-to-face with a strange but familiar man…and thought an animal awareness would rise within her, some sense memory of the nine months they shared a body…Varya knew there would not be a second [child] and so she clutched the tiny human, her biological son, and said goodbye not just to him but to the part of her that had been brave enough to love a man who thought so little of her and carry a child she knew she would not keep” (359).
He asks her why she chose not to keep him or to have an abortion, and she says it is because she was fearful. She knew she did not engage in life, and she hoped he would. “She wondered what kind of a person she was to give up a child for no better reason than her own fearfulness… [it was because she was] the kind of person who did not deserve that child…She could not bear that kind of life: dangerous, fleshy, full of love so painful it took her breath away” (361-362).
Luke becomes upset that she has not given in to life’s “pleasures.” She has not gotten married or had kids and she restricts her diet (the primate research she conducts is based on the idea of a low caloric diet prolonging life). “To see you like this breaks my fucking heart…You could have done anything. But you’re just like the monkeys, locked up and underfed. The point is that you have to live a lesser life in order to live a longer one” (364). To her, though, the consistency and routine equals safety.
She thinks of her siblings and how “if they had only been smarter, more cautious. If they had shown self-awareness, shown humility – if they had shown patience! If they had not lived as though life were a mad dash toward some unearned climax; if they had walked instead of fucking run” (365).
Q: Do you believe life should be lived to the fullest and be short or lived like Varya – cautious of everything, but live longer?
He angrily exclaims back, “You’re telling yourself that they died because of x, and you lived because of y, and that those things are mutually exclusive. That way you can believe you’re smarter…but you’re just as irrational as the rest of them” (366).
Luke and Varya continue conversing until she cannot take it anymore. She demands that he leave, even after he confesses a traumatic event from his childhood. She heads to her office where one of the primates she cares for is struggling to survive. She feeds and holds him, as she would a child, offering solace and comfort she only gave once before. Then, he bites her on the face.
She lives to her astonishment; because of this, she now had a new view of life, “she had not inhabited her body so wholly since childhood. Now the world rushed toward her in all its texture and sensation” (372).
Q: She discusses a meeting she had with Robert, the man Simon dated years ago. Why doesn’t Varya expand on the meeting with him? What is its significance?
She does end up losing her job, but she decides to reconnect with Luke. When Luke had previously asked her what she wanted out of life, she would have said, “to go back to the beginning. She would tell her thirteen-year-old self not to visit the woman. To her twenty-five-year-old self: Find Simon, forgive him. She would tell herself to take care of Klara…to stop the nurse before she took the baby out of Varya’s arms. She’d tell herself she would die…they all would…she’d tell herself that what she really wanted was not to live forever, but to stop worrying” (381).
Q: I am reminded of the “Midnight Library” and how it focused on not worrying about regrets and living your life to be your happiest instead. Did you also see this connection?
While visiting her mother, she tells her about the fortune teller; immediately her mother says it is absolute junk and no one would be stupid enough to believe a Gypsy.
Q: How do you feel about the ending? Does it provide closure or are you left with unanswered questions?
Discussion Questions from the Novel:
- “The Immortalists” explores the degree to which we shape our own destinies – do you believe that the siblings’ fate was preordained? Why or why not?
- The novel takes place in very different settings – 1960s New York, the San Francisco dance scene, glitzy Las Vegas hotels. In what ways do these locations affect the characters? Why do you think all four of the siblings moved away from New York City?
- “The Immortalists” is narrated by the four siblings in separate sections – what was the reading experience like when you switched sections? Did you identify more closely with certain siblings?
- The power of belief – whether it be magic, religious faith, or storytelling – is an important theme in the novel. How does belief affect each of the siblings? What is different or similar about the stories they tell themselves?
- At its heart, “The Immortalists” is a family love story, exploring both past and future generations of the Gold family. In what ways does family history shape us? What kind of legacies did the four siblings leave behind?
- How do magic and reality blur in the novel? Were there any particular moments that seemed to defy logic? Why are certain characters drawn to magic and the unknowable more than others?
- Discuss the siblings’ significant others: Raj, Mira, and Robert. How are their lives affected by the prophecy? How do romantic and familial relationships interact and contrast in “The Immortalists”?
- At the end of the novel, Gertie tells Varya about the beauty and freedom in uncertainty, questioning why her children believed the fortune teller. Did you believe the fortune teller? What gives the fortune teller her power? What freedom does uncertainty bring?
- What do you imagine happens to Varya after the book’s ending? How have her views on longevity and death changed?
Final Thoughts
The first sibling, Simon, receives a vast amount of information; I was quite enthralled with his story, especially since the author spent so much time explaining his behavior, his way of life, and his thoughts. Unfortunately, the author does not delve deeply into each sibling, which is a disappointment, especially when you want to learn more about them. By the time you reach Varya, the oldest sibling who gets the live the longest, the author seems to dwindle and close her story much more quickly. It’s almost as if she lost steam writing after her in depth characterization of the first two siblings.
Simon’s story was incredible – I felt very involved in his storyline, wondering when his death date would be, but knowing in my heart that it would happen too soon. When we learn that he is gay, I immediately had the suspicion he would die of AIDS, especially considering the time. When he passed away, I admit it, I cried; I felt so saddened to think of all the people during the 80s who contracted AIDS and had NO idea what was occurring. I was so incredibly sad that his life had ended so EARLY; it just seemed so unfair. I can’t even IMAGINE how scary it would be to live life without knowing what was killing those around you. To think of how unsafe and unsure the gay community must have felt, the fear taking control of their happiness. I was reminded of COVID and how unsure the world was at first – scary, unprecedented times that we had no control over!
Simon does live his life to the FULLEST, though – something we can all strive to do. He lived without fear or shame for who he was, although I wish he had spent more time communicating with his family. He walked away from his young life, never looking back, or worrying how it would affect his siblings or his mother, all of whom had just lost their father and husband. I’m sure his veracity for life is due to him knowing the date of his death, but it sure inspires me to live MORE – we are all going to die, so we might as well do something to show for it!
Klara, on the other hand, was an interesting character. She had moved to San Francisco to help her brother live his life fully, but she hadn’t done the same for herself until after he died. It was then that she poured herself into her work and seeking out ways to showcase her talents.
When she begins to encounter the knocks that she thinks might be from her dead brother and father, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were ACTUALLY happening or if they were inside her head.
As for Raj, I liked him at first; I thought he was encouraging and supporting her to follow her dreams, but then I realized he was controlling and forcing her to do things outside of her comfort zone. IF she hadn’t of gone to Vegas, would she still be alive, or would the prophecy still come true?
I really thought, as I’m sure some readers did too, that she was going to die during her Jaws of Life trick on opening night. I did NOT even imagine it would be by hanging herself!! My mouth literally dropped open, my eyes rushing past the words to find out what she had done. How could she?!
When she tells herself that Ruby can communicate with her just like she communicates with her father and brother, I couldn’t help but wonder, how would Ruby even know how to? “One more moment to hold Ruby and Raj in her mind; she’ll speak to them soon.” Why does she feel like she has to do this?! Why doesn’t she speak to them in real life?
Now, as for Daniel, I was so confused by his story. He went from being calm and collected to an angry killer?! I did not feel that this aligned with his character and how he had presented himself. He doesn’t seem like the type of person to suddenly seek revenge. I also found it unbelievable that he goes searching for the fortune teller’s home and quickly finds it. The Feds couldn’t seem to locate her, so how could he, especially in the dark? It seemed odd that he would, just on his own intuition.
And then, there’s Varya…what can be really said about her? She leads an interesting life where she is consumed with her work with monkeys. I glazed over so much of the description because it either went over my head or I wasn’t sure where the author intended on going.
When she met the journalist, that’s when the conversation was the most interesting and engaging. The journalist referenced people who believe that the human life span is already long enough and that some would argue that the focus should be on environmental conservation instead of human life; I wondered why it couldn’t be both! I would so appreciate a longer life for me and my loved ones, on an Earth that is well cared for.
And then the SHOCKER plot twist – the journalist being her son took the cake! I definitely did not see that one coming. He also brings up some very valid points about the way she lives her life, “You could have done anything. But you’re just like the monkeys, locked up and underfed. The point is that you have to live a lesser life in order to live a longer one” (364). I agree with his sentiment; I believe life should be lived to the fullest (even though I don’t practice it as much as I should); being overly cautious only causes anxiety and fearfulness that doesn’t make the situation better.
In the end, she wishes she could go back in time and reverse her mistakes (don’t we all). “She’d tell herself that what she really wanted was not to live forever, but to stop worrying” (381). This reminded of the “Midnight Library” and how it focused on living without regrets and living your life to be your happiest instead. We should remember that life isn’t a dress rehearsal – this is IT and we need to cherish every moment we get. We can’t spend our time fretting over the mistakes we have made, but rather be grateful of where our lives have arrived.
We also never learn if she lived to be 88…so disappointing! Her mother tells her she’s stupid to believe such things, and then the novel ends. I literally kept flipping pages, wondering where the rest of the story was. I felt it didn’t provide closure and left me with multiple unanswered questions.
If you’d like to give it a try (and support local bookstores), find the book here: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin on Bookshop.org
If you’d like to check out the book on Amazon, find the book here: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
You need to take part in a contest for one of the best websites on the net. I am going to highly recommend this website!
Excellent article. I definitely appreciate this site. Keep writing!