Exploring Fate and Free Will in a Poignant Tale of Siblings
Four stories of four siblings—each with their own dedicated section—going through life knowing the date of their death.
"They began together: before any of them were people, they were eggs, four out of their mother's millions. Astonishing, that they could diverge so dramatically in their temperaments, their fatal flaws—like strangers caught for seconds in the same elevator."
This book! The dynamic, nuanced relationships, the urgency to live, the desperation to stay in control, and the inability to completely see how those closest to you are each living their own struggle.... With powerful and vibrant writing, Benjamin really creates a fantastic little world of perfection.
When the Gold kids visit a fortune-telling woman they've heard about, they each are privately told the date they will die. From soonest to farthest away, from youngest to oldest, they each approach this news differently, and it sets them on the course for the rest of their lives. Deciding whether or not to believe it is constantly in the back of their minds, no more so than as their individual dates draw nearer. The patient forcefulness in which Benjamin pulls you through the story, creates one of the most gently demanding page-turners I've read.
"Life isn't just about defying death. It's also about defying yourself, and insisting on transformation."
I don't want to give too much away, or say too much about one sibling, but the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy lays heavy in this story, although outside of the pages of the book. Living life dangerously, absently, thoughtfully, truthfully, fully, recklessly, angrily, independently, separately, ...these siblings go on a journey.
"She'd tell herself that what she really wanted was not to live forever, but to stop worrying."
This is what I wanted out of The Last Romantics, but didn't quite get. One of those books that demands you go and read whatever else the author has written.
"They began together: before any of them were people, they were eggs, four out of their mother's millions. Astonishing, that they could diverge so dramatically in their temperaments, their fatal flaws—like strangers caught for seconds in the same elevator."
This book! The dynamic, nuanced relationships, the urgency to live, the desperation to stay in control, and the inability to completely see how those closest to you are each living their own struggle.... With powerful and vibrant writing, Benjamin really creates a fantastic little world of perfection.
When the Gold kids visit a fortune-telling woman they've heard about, they each are privately told the date they will die. From soonest to farthest away, from youngest to oldest, they each approach this news differently, and it sets them on the course for the rest of their lives. Deciding whether or not to believe it is constantly in the back of their minds, no more so than as their individual dates draw nearer. The patient forcefulness in which Benjamin pulls you through the story, creates one of the most gently demanding page-turners I've read.
"Life isn't just about defying death. It's also about defying yourself, and insisting on transformation."
I don't want to give too much away, or say too much about one sibling, but the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy lays heavy in this story, although outside of the pages of the book. Living life dangerously, absently, thoughtfully, truthfully, fully, recklessly, angrily, independently, separately, ...these siblings go on a journey.
"She'd tell herself that what she really wanted was not to live forever, but to stop worrying."
This is what I wanted out of The Last Romantics, but didn't quite get. One of those books that demands you go and read whatever else the author has written.