I Am On Some Kind Of Reading Roll, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   One of, if the last, of my book posts, was "Lost Empress," which I still see as a contender for the year.  I had hesitated about "The Immortalists," because many found it depressing, and, after coming off "A Little Life" this Summer, depressing was the last thing I wanted.

                                     It may not be Book Of The Year, but is a contender for my Ten Best List!

                                    But someone whose opinion I respected persevered in getting me to read the book, so I did. And while the first section--Simon's story--was sad and depressing--the others really weren't.  Though a trajectory is followed throughout most of the story, it seems, even as one read it, to be aiming for something beyond loss.

                                   The Golden Children--Simon, Klara, Daniel and Varya, growing up on Clinton Street, in New York, not far from Chinatown, go there one day.  Daniel has heard from some kids in the neighborhood that a local fortune teller lives there, who can predict, to the day, when one will die.  Curiosity gets the better of them, and each goes.  Each learns their death date. And the following sections devote themselves to seeing how this prophecy plays out.

                                      But before you start thinking, this book is too sad and predictable; that it is like a snuff novel, with the reader waiting for each sibling to meet his maker, Varya's story comes along, at the end, to challenge all that.  All she knows is she will die at eighty-eight, and she is nowhere near that.  But there is a surprise in her life that was hitherto unknown, and this results in a transformation of Varya from rigid, spinster, researcher, to loving animal activist.  If it is possible for this book to end on a hopeful note, it does, and when I finished the last sentence, I clutched the book, saying to myself, "What a beautiful novel."

                                         So, I urge you to read it.  Touching on questions no doubt all of us have pondered, it makes the reader question how much those ponderings, let alone the prophecy, really matters.

                                          Chloe Benjamin wrote, before this, "The Anatomy Of Dreams."  How did that one escape me?  Having been so impressed by "The Immortalists," I am look forward to reading her other book!

                                             Cheers, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!