Date with Destiny

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First off, I must say this book has the most beautiful cover! It is a work of art. Reviewer Elyse Walter’s opinion is that it symbolizes The Tree of Life and according to Jewish Kabbalists is a “diagrammatic representation of the process of which the Universe came into being.” Wow! I could have never known or guessed that. As I look at the cover now, I notice there are four main tree limbs branching out, which I assume symbolizes the four main characters. The limbs are growing, reaching out, going their separate ways.

This book tells the story of four young Jewish children living in New York City’s Lower East Side in 1969. They are the children of Saul Gold a tailor and his wife Gertie, a homemaker. Life is boring and on a summer day, the children, Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon ages thirteen to seven learn about a woman who tells fortunes and can predict when someone will die. On a lark, they visit her and one by one she gives them the date of their deaths. What they thought would be a bit of fun turns out to impact the way they will conduct the rest of their lives and how they interact with each other as well as the rest of the world.

At first when I heard the premise for this book, I thought I would have no problem knowing when I will die. I have always been a person who likes to know what is going to happen. It makes it easier to plan for things. After reading this story and the way this knowledge influenced each of these children, I must admit I may have changed my mind.

This book is very thought-provoking, at times extremely uncomfortable. It follows the siblings on four separate storylines as they go off on their own paths and each make uncomfortable choices with their lives that could possibly hasten their demise. The reader is left wondering if knowing when you will die influences someone to act a certain way. Does knowing your destiny trigger its reality? Or can free will create a new destiny?

It all begins with Klara and Simon leaving for San Francisco after their father’s sudden death in 1978. Simon at sixteen, runs away with Klara without telling his mother because he does not want the responsibility of taking over the family business. Simon, his mother’s favorite, the golden boy, has always been a bit restless, impetuous, and uncomfortable in his own skin. He goes a rather wild in San Francisco at a time when history is about to be made. Klara struggles to find her feet, but all she wants to do is perform her magic. She takes on numerous menial jobs to make a living all while waiting for her big break as a magician.

Daniel and Varya are both left picking up the pieces at home and trying to continue their scholarly paths. Their mother is heartbroken over Simon’s defection and Daniel is tasked with bringing him home. He is anxious to get back to medical school and is angry with Simon for putting him in this position. It’s felt all around that Simon as the youngest at sixteen should have stayed at home and taken care of their mother and the business. Simon is having too much fun and is adamant he will not return. The seer’s prediction catches up to him first and he has no regrets.

Daniel finally realizes his dream of becoming a doctor and ends up an army doctor after 9/11. Varya becomes a longevity researcher. She develops OCD as a mechanism to prevent the seer’s predictions from coming true. She said the “prophecy worked inside her like a virus” and it did the same to her siblings. Varya lives the longest, but her story is the saddest somehow. She works with apes in a lab and this was honestly heartbreaking and seemingly inhumane. The book did drag for me in a few places and once or twice I was not sure I wanted to continue, but I’m very happy I persevered. This last part of the story wrapped it all up in such a way it finally all made sense to me. It was a book worth reading, the subject worth considering. I give it 3 ½ stars rounded up to 4.