Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Immortalists, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate vs. Choice
Family and Shared History
Obsession
Death, Meaning, and Legacy
Surviving vs. Living
Magic, Religion, Dance, and Possibility
Summary
Analysis
The narration flashes back to 1991, when the family gathers at Klara’s memorial service in San Francisco. Daniel and Mira just moved to Kingston. Mira started working at SUNY New Paltz, Daniel’s new job starts in a month, and he and Mira will be married in six months. Still, Daniel feels desolate. After the memorial, Daniel goes to a pub and weeps. He mutters that everyone is dying, and the man next to him commiserates with him. The man introduces himself as Eddie O’Donoghue and explains that he’s investigating Klara’s death with the FBI.
Just like Simon’s death, Klara’s death highlights the family’s bonds. They all return to comfort one another in times of shared grief, illustrating how their common experiences pull them together. And part of Daniel’s desolation lies in knowing that while he will be moving into a new phase of his life, he won’t be able to have his sister in his life as he does so.
Themes
Daniel asks why the FBI is investigating Klara death. Eddie explains that he was in love with Klara. He tells the story of how he took Simon into the station, and then how he met up with Klara after one of her shows. Later, when he moved to Vegas, he saw her one day in a parking lot. He decided to go to her opening, and he got to the Mirage early. He followed her up the elevator and watched as she slipped into the penthouse. When she stayed in the room for a long time, he knocked on the door and shouted for her. Then he got a key from the front desk and found her hanging. He tried to perform CPR, but she was dead. Daniel asks not to hear any more.
Eddie’s story reveals that he was the man on the other side of the door when Klara killed herself, and that he was in fact in the parking lot when Klara thought she saw him—she wasn’t simply being haunted by the ghosts of her past. His story also adds to the power of shared experiences—the fact that he interacted with both Simon and Klara and loved Klara deeply gives him and Daniel common ground.
Themes
Eddie asks Daniel if he has any suspicions about Klara’s death, prompting him about Raj. Daniel says he doesn’t really know Raj, but he always felt Raj was controlling. Daniel also mentions what happened with the fortune teller, acknowledging that it may be crazy to think she was involved somehow. Eddie says he’ll look into it, but six months later, Klara’s death is ruled a suicide. Daniel isn’t surprised, knowing the simplest hypothesis is usually right.
Here Daniel’s rationality contrasts with his later obsession. Even though he brings up the fortune teller, he acknowledges here that believing that she was responsible for Klara’s death is illogical. He is particularly inclined to believe Klara was responsible for her death because of to his strong belief in free will.
Themes
Fourteen years later, Daniel meets up with Eddie O’Donoghue once more. Eddie shows him pictures of the Costellos, a Romani family convicted of 14 federal crimes who ran a fortune-telling fraud. They often convinced vulnerable, sick, and grieving people that the best way to solve their problems was through buying the family’s remedies. When the family was found, their assets totaled $50 million, and they were convicted of grand larceny, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Eddie’s story about the Costello family provides evidence for the idea that fate does not actually exist, and that fortune tellers are simply profiting off of people who do believe in what the fortune tellers say. Eddie’s story illustrates that sometimes this belief ultimately does massive financial or mental damage to the people who visit the fortune tellers—just as it did for Simon and Klara.
Themes
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Eddie explains that one woman was not convicted and shows Daniel a picture of the fortune teller. Eddie says that she seems to be estranged from her family, but she does the same thing, working under aliases and traveling across the country. Eddie then tells Daniel that they’ve linked the fortune teller to five suicides, including Klara. Eddie asks if the woman said anything to push the idea on Daniel or Klara. Daniel says he never felt pressured, but he knows that Klara was a little unstable and believed what the woman said.
Here, Daniel starts to believe that the fortune teller maliciously manipulated his family. Daniel is so willing to buy into the idea because of his emphasis on free will. He doesn’t believe that the fortune teller could actually predict a person’s date of death, but Klara’s willingness to believe in fate is what drove her to choose to commit suicide.
Themes
Daniel says that if the fortune teller had something to do with Klara and Simon’s deaths, then he also blames himself for bringing them to see the woman. Eddie replies that that’s blaming the victim. He notes that it must not have been easy for Daniel to hear his date of death, too. Daniel hasn’t forgotten his date—November 24th of this year—but he still thinks it is superstition. Eddie asks if the fortune teller predicted Simon’s death, too, and Daniel responds that he doesn’t know—Simon was a gay man living in San Francisco who contracted AIDS. Eddie thanks Daniel for his information and leaves.
Daniel worries that his actions played a part in Simon and Klara’s deaths, just as Klara worried that her actions prompted Simon’s death. Daniel additionally emphasizes his belief in free choice by noting Simon’s own role in his death. Daniel implies that Simon’s choice to have sex while AIDS was breaking out in San Francisco is what led to his death, not the fortune teller’s prediction.
Themes
Daniel drives home. He is disturbed by revisiting the story of the fortune teller in detail. He believes in choices and bad luck, and he doesn’t buy the woman’s claims. Still, the memory of the woman gives him anxiety. He has never told Mira about the experience, as he doesn’t want her to worry about him. And he doesn’t want Mira to think that he is like Klara: eccentric, unreasonable, and ill.
Again, Daniel continues to maintain the idea that he doesn’t believe in fate, and that choice was the only contributing factor to Klara’s and Simon’s deaths. Additionally, his worry about becoming like Klara foreshadows how he too, will allow an obsession to take hold of him.
Themes
