The idea of exploring what knowing the precise date of your death would do to your actions and plans is fascinating. Does that mean that you are essentially invincible until that date? That no matter what you do to your fate has been decreed and you will survive till that date? Does it mean that you can only survive that date if you are like coed in a padded cell under 24 hour observation? Do you then become a daredevil, tempting fate? Or do you become timid as the date approaches?
The story begins with four children -siblings in fact- who consult the local fortuneteller and find out the scary fated day for each. What follows then is the vivid portrait of the four children as they grow up. For Simon, it means “coming out” in San Francisco circa the Seventies and engaging in risky sex with partners from bathhouses and nightclubs. For Klara, it’s becoming a magician and circus performer, defying all odds as she walks the tightrope and hangs from harnesses. For Daniel, it is absorbing all the guilt from those two early deaths that come right on schedule. For Varya, it means coming clean with their mother about what they all came to believe.
Sadly, the idea about predictions and immovable fate is generally not front and center but lurks in the constant background. It is for the most part, a richly layered literary exploration of four siblings, their attachments, and their estrangements. It can be, at times, a bit slow moving and not exactly action packed.
The story begins with four children -siblings in fact- who consult the local fortuneteller and find out the scary fated day for each. What follows then is the vivid portrait of the four children as they grow up. For Simon, it means “coming out” in San Francisco circa the Seventies and engaging in risky sex with partners from bathhouses and nightclubs. For Klara, it’s becoming a magician and circus performer, defying all odds as she walks the tightrope and hangs from harnesses. For Daniel, it is absorbing all the guilt from those two early deaths that come right on schedule. For Varya, it means coming clean with their mother about what they all came to believe.
Sadly, the idea about predictions and immovable fate is generally not front and center but lurks in the constant background. It is for the most part, a richly layered literary exploration of four siblings, their attachments, and their estrangements. It can be, at times, a bit slow moving and not exactly action packed.