The Immortalists
by Chloe Benjamin · 2018
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.2/5
Chloe Benjamin's "The Immortalists" weaves a captivating tale of four siblings whose lives are shaped by a childhood prophecy, exploring the profound interplay between fate and personal choice.
Chloe Benjamin's "The Immortalists" is a thoughtful meditation on fate versus free will, elegantly structured and deeply felt.
This novel presents an ambitious narrative conceit, exploring how a singular, defining moment can ripple through the lives of four siblings with profound and often devastating consequences. While not without its structural inconsistencies, the book ultimately succeeds as a compelling inquiry into the nature of belief and self-fulfilling prophecy.
From its intriguing premise, "The Immortalists" dares to ask what would happen if one knew the precise date of their death, tracing the divergent paths of the Gold siblings after a fateful visit to a psychic in 1969. Chloe Benjamin meticulously crafts four distinct narratives, each unfolding within the shadow of this shared, chilling prophecy, allowing the reader to witness the ways in which foreknowledge can shape, distort, or even define a life. The novel moves with a lyrical precision, its prose often imbued with a melancholic beauty that perfectly suits its philosophical underpinnings, inviting contemplation rather than merely recounting events.
The strength of the novel lies significantly in its characterization; each Gold sibling—Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya—is rendered with a rich interiority that makes their individual struggles and triumphs feel deeply personal and authentic. Simon's pursuit of freedom and love in the burgeoning gay scene of 1980s New York, Klara's artistic aspirations and her grapple with illusion, Daniel's steadfast but increasingly troubled life as a military doctor, and Varya's scientific rigor and her profound isolation are all explored with empathy and nuance. Benjamin masterfully allows their choices to reflect, or perhaps refute, the prophecy that looms over them, creating a tapestry of human experience that resonates long after the final page.
Benjamin’s structural choices are particularly noteworthy, as she dedicates substantial portions of the novel to each sibling, creating four distinct novellas woven into a larger whole. This approach allows for a deep dive into each character's psychological landscape, showcasing how their beliefs about their mortality influence their relationships, careers, and personal definitions of happiness. The narrative seamlessly shifts between decades and locations, from the Lower East Side of New York to Las Vegas and San Francisco, providing a vivid backdrop against which these intensely personal dramas unfold, thereby enriching the novel's thematic scope.
My primary reservation with "The Immortalists" centers on the varying degrees of narrative propulsion across the four sections; while Simon and Klara's stories possess a kinetic energy and emotional immediacy that feels fully realized, Daniel and Varya's narratives, particularly Varya's, occasionally suffer from a more attenuated pace. The later sections, while conceptually rich, sometimes feel less urgent, their philosophical explorations outweighing the narrative's forward momentum, creating a slight imbalance in the overall rhythm that can occasionally test the reader's patience.
Despite this minor unevenness, "The Immortalists" remains a profoundly moving and intellectually stimulating novel that skillfully navigates weighty themes of destiny, choice, and the inherent human desire to understand and control one's fate. Benjamin doesn't offer easy answers, but rather poses searching questions, allowing the reader to ponder the extent to which our lives are predetermined or self-authored. It is a work that challenges one to consider the power of belief, both in prophecy and in oneself, and the myriad ways we construct meaning in the face of the unknown.
Key Takeaways
- Fate vs. Free Will
- Power of Belief
- Meaning in Mortality
Summary
- Four Gold siblings visit a psychic in 1969 who allegedly tells them the exact date of their deaths.
- The novel then follows each sibling's life journey through their predicted death date, exploring the impact of this foreknowledge.
- Simon, the youngest, embraces freedom and love in 1980s New York, living passionately.
- Klara, a magician, grapples with illusion and reality, attempting to control her fate through art.
- Daniel, a military doctor, seeks order and purpose, struggling with the burden of his predicted end.
- Varya, a scientist, dedicates herself to longevity research, striving to defy the limitations of mortality.
- The narrative structure provides four distinct but interwoven stories, each a novella in itself.
- Ultimately, the book explores themes of fate vs. free will, the power of belief, and how we choose to live when confronted with our own mortality.
Chapter Guide
- Chapter 1: The Fortune Teller's Prophecy
- In the summer of 1969, the four Gold siblings—Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya—visit a mysterious fortune teller in their Lower East Side neighborhood, each receiving a prediction of their death date. This fateful encounter irrevocably shapes their lives, setting them on divergent paths as they grapple with the knowledge of their finite time.
- Chapter 2: Simon's Flight to Freedom
- Simon, the youngest and most flamboyant, flees to San Francisco in the 1980s, drawn to the city's burgeoning LGBTQ+ scene and the promise of self-reinvention. He embraces a life of dance, love, and artistic expression, acutely aware of his predicted short lifespan.
- Chapter 3: Klara's Illusions
- Klara, a magician, channels her preoccupation with death into her craft, seeking to control or defy her destiny through illusion and spectacle. She finds love and partnership in Las Vegas, but her art becomes inextricably linked to her anxieties about time.
- Chapter 4: Daniel's Search for Order
- Daniel, a military doctor, seeks to impose order on the chaos of life and death, driven by a desire to understand and perhaps even outsmart his predicted fate. His scientific mind struggles with the irrationality of the fortune teller's prophecy, leading him to investigate its origins.
- Chapter 5: Varya's Longevity Project
- Varya, the eldest, dedicates her life to longevity research, isolating herself in a laboratory to understand the mechanisms of aging and bypass her own predicted end. Her pursuit of immortality comes at the cost of personal connection and emotional fulfillment.
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