Tag: The Immortalists

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin: A Review

“Most adults claim not to believe in magic, but Klara knows better. Why else would anyone play at permanence – fall in love, have children, buy a house – in the face of all evidence there’s no such thing? The trick is not to convert them. The trick is to get them to admit it.” – Chloe Benjamin, The Immortalists

Well, add this one to your Christmas lists, folks. Or maybe treat yourself a little early. The Immortalists is an imaginative, thoughtfully written book. (And I told you it has a gorgeous cover). Divided into five parts, the novel begins in New York City at the end of the 1960s. The Gold siblings – Varya, Daniel, Klara and Simon – sneak off to visit a psychic who has set up shop in an apartment on Hester Street. One by one, they enter her apartment to be told the exact day they will die. There is just one hitch: she makes them swear that they won’t tell anyone else what they’ve learned, not even each other. While they are upset by the knowledge at first, eventually they seem to leave it behind, dismissing it as a childish adventure. Except that the experience never really leaves any of them. Benjamin describes how in one way or another, each sibling struggles, but cannot let go of the prophecy the psychic has given them: ” … the memory of the woman on Hester Street is like a miniscule needle in his stomach, something he swallowed long ago and which floats, undetectable, except for moments when he moves a certain way and feels a prick.”

Each of the other four sections of the novel follow one of the four siblings as they approach the day the psychic prophesied their deaths. Benjamin renders each of the sibling’s stories so uniquely that you are completely drawn in each time. Throughout the novel she weaves in contradictions between fate and choice, religion and science, faith and reason, life and death. As their stories unfold, the siblings have to confront the fact that seeing that psychic may have consciously or unconsciously shaped the choices they made in their lives. They are forced to ask themselves, do they believe? Do the others? And ultimately: “is it more important to truly live or to survive? To dare to dream at our grandest or to play it safe?” Their answers to those questions set their lives on very different trajectories as they struggle with what it means to pursue their own dreams and still hold their family together. Distinct personalities from the outset of the novel, Benjamin never makes it clear how much of the Golds’ identities and choices are a result of their own nature, and how much was shaped by their experience with the psychic. Beautifully written and at times heart-breaking, this is a novel that you will continue to think about long after you’ve put it down.

After having read The Immortalists, I wonder which of the Gold siblings’ stories spoke the most to other readers. If you read it, drop me a note and let me know what you think. I love hearing your perspectives on the books. Until next time, happy reading!

November Line Up

While I am usually happy with my home on the east coast, if there is one month I feel a little less than grateful, it’s November. It’s dark, cold, wet, dreary, gray – I could play this game for a long time, folks. So for this month, the theme is “Get Me Out of Here!” If I can’t escape the magical weather combination of drizzle and sleet that November brings in real life, at least I can travel via book. All of this month’s selections are set in other places so maybe you’ll find one in here too to help you beat the November blahs.

November 3: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. I first picked this book up because I loved the cover (I know what you’re thinking but let’s all admit, sometimes beautiful books actually do have beautiful covers). The concept behind the story is really interesting: one hot summer day in 1969, four siblings in New York City visit a psychic who tell each one the exact day they will die. The rest of the novel is divided into four parts, one devoted to each sibling as Benjamin reveals how the prophecy influences each of their lives. The story zigzags across the US as the siblings move away from their childhood home in NYC in pursuit of their dreams.

November 10: The Little French Bistro by Nina George. I really enjoyed George’s other novel, The Little Paris Bookshop, which hooked me with the idea of a bookshop in a canal boat that goes floating around the rivers of France. It was totally charming and sweet, oh, and there were recipes in the back of the book for all the French food George writes about in the novel. What’s not to love? In her new novel, George’s main character, Marianne, packs it in after she can stand her unhappy marriage no longer and leaves Paris for the Brittany coast. And there are recipes again, so I will let you know if I try any…

November 17: Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. This is a recent Reese’s Book Club pick. I will admit, I really do love Reese Witherspoon. She is amazing in HBO’s Big Little Lies (if you haven’t watched it, read the book first, it is so good) and she does a lot to promote all things bookish. I also really love Cuba. The country, the people and the culture are beautiful and the island’s history is fascinating so I was sold on this book. The story is set between 1958, in the years before the revolution and in Miami in 2017 and follows two women, Elisa, a member of a wealthy Cuban family who is forced to flee during the revolution and Marisol, her granddaughter, who eventually returns to Cuba to scatter Elisa’s ashes in the country of her birth.

November 24: Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce. This novel is set in London during World War II. The main character, Emmeline, dreams of becoming a war correspondent. Instead, she ends up answering letters for Mrs. Bird, a renowned advice columnist. Mrs. Bird tells Emmy to throw any letters that involve Unpleasantness straight into the garbage but Emmy ends up reading them and answering them in secret. This book is supposed to be both funny and moving, so I am really looking forward to it.

So there we are, the continental US, France, Cuba and England. You can take your pick but while the November rain pours down, I am going to be somewhere cozy with a good book and I hope you will be too. Let me know if you plan on picking up any of November’s books!