The Immortalists

“Varya feels a pang of guilt. In Hebrew school, she heard the case against idols, listening solemnly as Rabbi Chaim read from the tractate Avodah Zarah.” 

The novel contains both religious and magical rituals. In some cases, the secular rituals come up against the religious rituals. However, by the end, the novel makes the case that all of these rituals are similar—they keep the characters moving forward, able to derive order from or impose order on the world. 

“Ma wants me to go to college, but she got that with Danny and V. She has to understand that I’m not her. And you aren’t Dad.” 

In this scene, Klara convinces Simon to go with her to San Francisco. As a means to make her case, she tries to make Simon see how different they are from their parents and other siblings. It is important for her to make a break from her past and her tradition, and this connects to Simon’s own desires. This journey helps them self-actualize. 

“She spins once, then twice—his sister, a teacup, a dervish in the living room of their new apartment.” 

Here, Simon observes his sister Klara. They have just moved into their new apartment in San Francisco. This description speaks to Klara’s courage and freedom—she has just left all she knows behind and now her body is taking on this type of energy. The dervish description also hints at her abilities with magic. 

“He must become like the other male dancers: expert, majestic, invincibly strong.” 

In San Francisco, Simon becomes obsessed with the art of dance. Through this medium, he is able to actualize his own artistic talent. The body is significant, as this is Simon’s instrument. It also becomes his downfall when he contracts AIDS from the beautiful male bodies in his community. 

“It’s eighty-five degrees, the sidewalk fruit stands full as Eden, and no one tries to stop them.” 

This line is a description of Simon and Klara’s life in San Francisco before tragedy strikes. The time before Simon’s death is idyllic, and the two feel invincible. This description serves as a contrast to all of the destruction and trauma that ensues in the novel. 

“‘From control,” he says, “comes freedom. From restraint comes flexibility. From the trunk”—he puts one hand to his core, then gestures, with his free hand, to his raised leg—“come the branches.’” 

Here, the company director, Gali, discusses the art of dance. This is a key element in terms of Simon’s development as an individual and an artist. This description also speaks to the many dichotomies in the novel, between fate and choice, control and freedom. 

“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.” 

Throughout the novel, magic means many things. It connects to fate or to religion. At the core, magic is what keeps people moving forward. It is what makes them believe that there is something more to the world, something worth striving for.   

“East Indian Needle Trick, in which a magician swallows loose needles and thread and pulls apart his cheeks for audience inspection before regurgitating them perfectly strung.” 

Here, the author describes one of Klara’s many magic tricks. Engaging with work such as this allows Klara to connect to a deeper purpose through art. She also believes engaging with magic connects her to a world larger than her own, one connected to the supernatural and to fate. 

“In the words of the prayer, no one was missing. In the words of the prayer, the Golds gathered together.” 

The prayer is a type of Jewish ritual, a frequent motif in the novel. Even after Simon’s death, the Golds are able to unite with each other in prayer. Though tension exists between them, this practice helps them put all that aside and be with each other as a family.  

“When she tipped the pots toward the water, she felt dreadful freedom—an unbounded aloneness so dizzying she felt the pull of the water herself.” 

Gertie is a character who has endured a great deal of loss, from her husband to her children. She is someone who is tied to her heritage more so than her children are. In a way, she is trapped in New York and trapped in the past. This dream represents a symbolic letting go, which fills her with relief.  

“What is growing a baby if not making a flower appear from thin air, turning one scarf into two?” 

In the novel, magic seems to infuse many aspects of life, whether it is Varya’s magical thinking or Klara’s literal magic shows. Here, the author makes another connection to the magic of human life. Klara is able to think of her pregnancy as a magic trick of nature. 

“Klara has always known she’s meant to be a bridge: between reality and illusion, the present and the past, this world and the next.” 

As Klara continues to drink and possibly suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness, she comes to believe that she can connect to this world and the supernatural. It is this kind of thinking that makes her believe she will be able to die and have a connection to her family. In her isolation, these ideas have room to grow and ultimately result in her suicide.  

“You could call it a trapdoor, a hidden compartment, or you could call it God: a placeholder for what we don’t know. A space where the impossible becomes possible” 

Klara makes a comparison between her beliefs and those of Saul. In her mind, they believe in the same thing: some sort of divine inner working of the universe. For Klara, it is magic. For Saul, it is a Jewish God and vision of the world. 

“You used to be the one to set the marks,” one says. “You aren’t careful, Gandhi’ll take your job.” 

This passage represents an instance of casual racism between the stagehands at The Mirage as they talk about Raj. In this world, people of color are continually subject to racism, ranging from aggressive to casual. Comments like these contribute to an environment where it is harder for someone like Raj to prevail in a white-dominated world. 

“Klara knows what it’s like to hang on to the world by her teeth. She knows what it’s like to want to let go.” 

In the minutes before her death, Klara thinks back to her grandmother, who performed the Jaws of Life. The act of hanging on by the teeth is both literal and metaphorical. Both women perform tricks, and both women seem to suffer from untreated mental illness. Forming this connection back to her grandmother makes it easier for Klara to take her own life. This action harkens back to inherited trauma, which continues to prevail.  

“Shortly after Simon’s passing, Daniel stopped praying entirely. He was not troubled by his abandonment of religion.” 

All of the Golds have differing views on fate and the supernatural, and Daniel is one of the most staunchly rooted in reason. By turning his back on God and Judaism, he cuts himself off from an element of his family’s past. His abandonment of God is another way for Daniel to repress the intensity of Simon’s death and refuse to address his own guilt. 

“Klara and Simon believed they had taken pills with the power to change their lives, not knowing they had taken a placebo—not knowing that the consequences originated in their own minds.” 

These lines are Eddie’s explanation of what happened with Simon and Klara after Bruna’s prediction. Her forecast did not, in fact, actually have any power. However, because Klara and Simon gave it credence, there were actual consequences. Eddie’s reading of fate puts more emphasis on action than a prescribed plan. 

“What guilt she feels at her terseness is replaced by self-assurance. She is, in the world of primate research, establishing dominance.” 

Here, Varya has a conversation with Luke. In order to defend her research practices, she must act as if there is no doubt in her mind as to their ethics. This layer of self-assurance is related to repression—she has not allowed herself to experience the full range of emotions associated with the research and her ties to Frida. 

“It’s continuously dealing with a low level of stress, and this teaches it how to deal with stress in the long-term.” 

Varya describes the anti-aging experiments to Luke. Once the body is under the stress of lack of nutrition, it learns to live with this discomfort. This description is an apt metaphor for the way Varya lives her life—she has become so comfortable with secrecy and repression that she has learned to tolerate it.  

“There were the two of them, equally fearful, equally alone, staring into the mirror together.” 

When Frida the monkey arrives at Drake, Varya is the one to take her in. Throughout the novel, Frida acts as a sort of surrogate child for Varya, standing in for the one she gave up. Like Frida, Varya is unsure of herself and lost, trying to survive after she has endured many losses. 

“What does it matter whether we tell her the truth?” she asked. “The story isn’t going to bring Daniel back. It won’t change how he died.” 

These lines hit on the theme of repression. Secrets are a big part of the Golds’ life. In many ways, they tell secrets to spare each other, as Varya wants to do with Gertie. However, the secrets have a way of coming back and rearing their heads in the end. 

“The medications we have now—well, they would have saved your brother’s life, if they’d been available back then. And genetic testing could make it possible to detect an individual’s risk of mental illness, even to diagnose them. That might have saved Klara, right?” 

Luke confronts Varya about her life choices. He suggests that she engages in her research in an effort to fruitlessly bring her siblings back. In this way, he tries to make her see that her choices are futile—that she has been pursuing something that cannot be rectified. 

“She could make the choice she had planned to make; her life could continue on as it had been before the aberration and so remain symmetrical. Instead, she unbuttoned her coat to a flush of cold air. And then she turned around.” 

Throughout her life, Varya has been a creature of habit, never deviating from her controlled ways. She does so to combat the disorder of the universe and the power of fate to exert control over her. However, in the instance of her pregnancy, she decides to relinquish control and open herself up to fate.