Is the rating based on the empirical (as if there were such an objective thing.well, maybe there is. Partly because recently I have rated so many books 5 stars. It covered all the emotions you’d expect a family epic to cover, heartstrings were tugged and laugh lines were activated.īut, the Spanish inquisition? That, I wasn’t expecting. When events from earlier in the story are brought up again, a quick synopsis was usually included, and since this book ran to over 700 pages, these recaps never felt redundant.įrom the Moors in Spain, to World Wars and Trotsky, this book covered a lot of ground and introduced a lot of characters, but without ever feeling overwhelming. It was easy to put down and come back to without feeling lost. This wasn’t a Jewish epic, but a story of the importance of family, memory and storytelling. As the story progresses, we can trace the interweaving threads that connect not just blood, but all people. This sanguine connection becomes even more apparent as we watch each generation suffer, fail, triumph and fall in love. Genes and the idea of certain desirable and undesirable traits being “in your blood” were repeated themes. The fictitious history used real conflicts, events, and historical figures as the backdrop for each character’s story and served to both ground and propel the narrative forward.Īri and his great-uncle Fernando’s stories are interjected throughout the narrative, breaking up the monotony of his ancestors’ tales. The touches of magical realism reminded me of 100 Years of Solitude and read like a Forest Gump/Big Fish mash-up. Focusing on one son per generation, we follow the path of the secret elixir of immortality as it’s passed from father to son. Acting as the frame story, Ari, the narrator, begins by explaining that he is childless, dying and wants to keep his family history from disappearing with him. Spanning 1,000 years, The Elixir of Immortality weaves the Spinoza family saga through European and Jewish history. The Elixir of Immortality blends truth and fiction as it rewrites European history through comic, imaginative, scandalous, and tragic tales that prove “the only thing that can possibly give human beings immortality on this earth: our ability to remember.” He chronicles the Spinozas’ involvement in some of Europe’s most formative cultural events with intertwining narratives that move through ages of tyranny, creativity, and social upheaval: into medieval Portugal, Grand inquisitor Torquemada’s Spain, Rembrandt’s Amsterdam, the French Revolution, Freud’s Vienna, and the horrors of both world wars. From his deathbed, he begins his narrative, hoping to save his lineage from oblivion.Īri’s two main sources of his family’s history are a trunk of yellowing documents inherited from his grandfather, and his great-uncle Fernando’s tales that captivated him when he was a child. Now, after thirty-six generations, the last descendant of this long and illustrious chain, Ari Spinoza, doesn’t have a son to whom to entrust the manuscript. They rated each on a scale of one to 10 based on tastiness and mouthfeel.Since the eleventh century, the Spinoza family has passed down, from father to son, a secret manuscript containing the recipe for immortality. Michael Chelune, Michael Fratelli, and Jesse Bowman, who will hereafter be referred to by their Juggalo names: Mikey, G-Mike, and J Breezy, taste-tested 33 bottles of Faygo (21 sugary flavors, plus 12 diet versions). So we roped three Juggalos into ranking every Faygo flavor we could get our hands on. If you don't love Faygo, you can't be a Juggalo. Every Juggalo knows the feeling of getting root beer in their hair or a 2-liter bottle to the face. Now, an ICP concert ain't an ICP concert without enough "Faygo Showers" to drench an entire audience. And thereafter, Faygo became the unofficial official beverage of Juggalos and Juggalettes everywhere. As legend has it, at a concert early in ICP's career, Violent J hurled a 2-liter bottle at some hecklers, spraying soda across the crowd. The two members of ICP, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, are Detroit natives and longtime Faygo fans. And no one loves Faygo more than Juggalos and Juggalettes, the crazed face-painted fans of the hardcore hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse (known as ICP). If you're from the Detroit area, Faygo - the local pop known for flavors like Rock N' Rye, Redpop, and Moon Mist - just might be your favorite soda.
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