"The Immortalists" by Chloe Benjamin

I wasn’t sure how many stars to give The Immortalists on Good Reads. I liked the book – it was, actually, a good read (see what I did there?). But I didn’t love it. Oddly, I kept thinking that maybe it was over-edited. Sometimes you read a book and think, this really could have used another pass by an editor. This time, I wondered if too much was cut.

The book begins with the four Gold children, Varya, Daniel, Klara and Simon (oldest to youngest), visiting a fortuneteller. She gives each of them the date of his or her death. Fast forward (maybe 10 years?) and their father, Saul, dies. Saul’s death provides the catalyst for Klara and Simon to leave New York together and begin living out their destinies. (Klara is 18, but Simon is underage and considered a runaway.) Spoilers ahead.

And here I came to my first problem – one that continued throughout the book. Every child talks about missing Saul, yet as readers we hardly knew him. Why was Saul’s death needed to propel Klara and Simon to California? Couldn’t Klara’s high school graduation serve just as well? I’ll answer my own question… probably for Klara, but Simon was expected to take over the family tailoring business (Daniel is on track to be a doctor) and he doesn’t want to do it. Still, Saul’s death takes on a greater significance than his life seemed to. [I’ll admit here that maybe I missed something about Saul. But we do learn more about their mom’s past than their dad’s.]

Each of the next four sections center on one child and how he or she lives and dies. And each section picks up where the last one left off. The children die in reverse age order. Simon goes first, dying of AIDS in San Francisco. He lives a rather louche life, and the siblings later wonder if he was rushing himself toward death because he knew he would die young.

In turn, each of the Gold children make decisions that will ensure the fortuneteller was correct. Klara commits suicide on her date. Daniel commits suicide-by-cop on his date. And scientist Varya, who was promised a long life, studies how to make humans live longer. She experiments on primates, as well as on herself. Unfortunately, due to the book’s setup, Daniel’s life story get a bit of a short-shrift. He reacts to the two deaths that come before his and we don’t learn much about him. Simon’s and Klara’s sections are much more fully realized. Varya’s section is an outlier, perhaps because she was given the gift of long life.

There are a few secondary characters that take on some importance: Simon’s lovely boyfriend, Robert; Klara’s unlikable husband, Raj, and their daughter, Ruby; Daniel’s devoted wife, Mira; a reporter of sorts who visits Varya; and a San Francisco cop-turned-FBI-agent, Eddie. I think Eddie’s character is interesting – he bullies Simon, falls in love with Klara, and then meets with Daniel a few times. But then nothing. Why have this character thread his way through each of the stories and NOT appear in Varya’s? Is it again because she’s the outlier? I thought Eddie was going to represent something more – something anti-Fate. And he didn’t.

Yes, as a lot of reviewers who love this book have said, The Immortalists makes you contemplate fate, and it does, but not in the right way. Why does Klara seem determined to die on her date? Simply because she was told it was the date? (Varya later suspects that Klara was suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia.) Was it important that the children die in the reverse order of their birth? Was this so that Simon could die of AIDS when AIDS was new and untreatable? Why does the book end with Klara’s daughter saying what she says (I feel a little dumb for not appreciating this – because I think we’re meant to appreciate it).

Personal note: I would love to visit a fortuneteller. I used to play one as a child (at carnivals on our block to raise money for various charities). As a teen I casted astrology charts, studied handwriting analysis and read lots on divination. I’ve insisted to my mother that I may be part Roma (what we call gypsies). Even now, I will consult an astrologer from time to time – doing so provides me with some comfort. But I’ve never believed that my fate was set in stone. I believe that some things are meant to be, but that it’s also up to us to get there or not. Which doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense, I know.

If you read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Here or in a message to me.