My Thoughts on "The Immortalists" and Book Discussion Questions

I'm going to be honest, I finished this book last week, but it's been so crazy that I haven't been able to blog about it.  I've also been kicking myself for not blogging about this book sooner because it's definitely one of my top five that I've read this year.

My mom read this book over the summer for her book club before I joined, and, at first, the premise creeped me out, and I wanted nothing to do with it.  I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to know the day they're going to die.  On an impulse, however, I decided to buy the book and give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did!  The book focuses on four siblings.  As children, they went to see a fortune teller who claimed she could accurately predict the exact date a person dies.  Each sibling visits the fortune teller and gets the date he or she will die before they head back home with this information hanging over their head.  The book then jumps ahead to when the siblings are in their late teens and early twenties when their own father dies.  They now start to question their own mortality and worry if the fortune teller was correct in her predictions.  The youngest two, Simon and Klara, set off for San Francisco to find their own way.  Simon struggled with is own sexuality, while Klara wanted to become a famous magician.  At this point, the siblings start to realize the fortune teller might have been correct in her predictions.

Overall, I thought this was an absolutely amazing book.  It forces the reader to ask questions they don't typically like to think about.  When I told Bryan about the book, I thought I'd ask him if he would want to know the day he was going to die.  Without missing a beat, he immediately said that he wouldn't want to know, and I agree with him.  At the same time, I could see why some people would want to know, especially if it turns out they're going to die fairly young.

I know I normally talk more about a book before jumping into the spoilers part, but this book is pretty much impossible to talk about without divulging spoilers, so I'm going to stop right now and add my requisite spoiler alert.  If you haven't read this book or want to avoid spoilers, you should probably stop reading now.  Also, if you haven't read this book, go get it from your nearest library, bookstore or Amazon and read it immediately!

First of all, even though the three deaths we saw in the book all corresponded to the date given to them by the fortune teller, I have some doubts as to the accuracy of the fortune teller in general.  In my opinion, Simon's death was the only one that had absolutely nothing to do with the fortune teller.  I also felt that his death was completely predictable.  All I had to do was read the little summary on the back of the book to know that Simon died from AIDS (a man in San Francisco in the 1980s is fairly obvious unfortunately).  I mean, the fact that the fortune teller was able to get Simon's death correct was impressive, but I can still find some flaws in it.

I firmly believe the three deaths in the book are all related to self-fulfilling prophecy.  Simon was already sick, but since he had it in his head that he was supposed to die on a specific day, he just gave up and accepted that as his fate.  A large part of fighting off any type of devastating illness is believing you can get better.  I'm not saying that that's all you need to beat any sort of disease, but it definitely helps.  Since Simon had it in his mind that he was destined to die on a certain day, he started giving up as that day neared.  Simon was going to die regardless, but I think the fact he died on that day has to do with the fact that he was told he would die on that day.

While Simon's death being a part of self fulfilling prophecy might be a bit of a stretch, Klara's death was undoubtedly connected to her visit with the fortune teller.  I really saw Klara's suicide as her taking a hold of her own death and fate, not allowing her death to be some sort of terrible, catastrophic accident while performing on stage.  She believed she was destined to die, so she did it herself and went out on her own terms.

Just like Klara, Daniel's death was directly connected to his visit with the fortune teller.  For the life of her, my mom couldn't understand why Daniel chose that day of all days to go hunt down the fortune teller and confront her.  While I can see where my mom is coming from, just like Klara, Daniel figured that that was his day to die, so he had nothing to lose; if he was going to die, he was going to go down in a blaze of glory and bring down the woman who destroyed his family as well.  I firmly believe if Daniel didn't have it in his head that that was the day he was supposed to die, then he wouldn't have died that day.  Once again, it was an example of self fulfilling prophecy.

Even though I didn't read this book for book club, I decided to write up some discussion questions.  This book is perfect for a book club.  There's a lot of unpack, along with an overarching existential question that will undoubtedly leave your book club divided.  Please feel free to use my questions to guide your discussion of this wonderful book.

1. Why did the kids tell their parents?
2. How did Saul's death contribute to Simon's rebelliousness?
3. Why do you think Simon was with Robert for so long if they were so un-compatible?
4. Do you think Raj was living vicariously through Klara?
5. Why did Klara name her daughter after her friend who told her about the fortune teller?
6. Why did Klara commit suicide?
7. How did the fact that the fortune teller came from a family of con artists change your perception of Simon and Klara's deaths?
8. Were the deaths of each sibling a result of the placebo effect like Daniel thought?
9. Although Varya lived the longest out of the four siblings, did she truly live?
10. Why didn't Varya go through with the abortion?
11. Why did Varya finally tell Gertie about the fortune teller?
12. Did the information from the fortune teller drive the siblings more apart?
13. Did the fortune teller's predictions make each person act out of character leading up to his or her death?
14. In what way did the trip to the fortune teller change the lives of each of the Gold children?
15. In what way did Frida undo the damage done by the fortune teller?
16. If they hadn't died, where do you think Simon, Klara and Daniel would have been at the end of the book?
17. Why was the last paragraph told from Ruby's point of view?