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Perhaps the one book club member who entered the room and stated: "This book DESTROYED me!" pretty much said it all! I felt Benjamin did an absolutely excellent job of depicting the seeming age-old quandary of fate vs. self-determination. Is it perhaps possible that each of these four "Gold" children subconsciously internalized the prediction of their date of death and unconsciously worked toward it?

And, although no one mentioned it at book club...the irony of the last name of these four children being "gold" was not lost on me. "Good as gold." The "golden child." Etc. As a reader I expected them to have rather uncomplicated successful lives. Though I didn't feel it worked out that way for most of them in the end. And exactly how much did the gypsy really "know" or "see?" I do believe there are those people in this world who can 'sense' or 'know' things most of us cannot. Is that type of 'knowledge' good or bad? I guess it depends exactly how it is used. Her family members obviously used it to defraud people. Did she? Just in a less obvious way? I don't actually believe so, but you would have to read this book to determine your own opinion.

Amazingly, no one chose to discuss religion during the book club meeting. I felt it to be one of the over-arching themes of the book. Particularly at the end as Varya and her mother discuss the prophecies given each of her children when they were young and how they may or may not have determined the children's actions and decisions, Gertie is outraged that her children would believe such a thing. Varya counters by asking her mother what of her own superstitious beliefs linked to her religion, Judaism? To which Gertie counters, "I'm ignorant!" And continues by asking Varya what her excuse might be considering that her own children all had the benefit of education, financial security, emotional security, generally everything Gertie had NOT had as a child. Obviously, the Gold children's mother believed they were safe from such unfounded beliefs due to their comfortable and secure lifestyle and raising. I couldn't resist thinking, "Oooohhh...zing! To organized religion!" With which I totally agree, being a secular humanist/atheist myself. But I don't think other readers may have felt as strongly about that as I did...

Ah, and the ethics/morality (or lack thereof) for animal research. The older I get the less I can see the value of literally capturing, caging, and torturing animals. Period. The poor baby Varya allows to imprint with her upon arrival. Heartbreaking. :(

I will be discussing this in more detail with my "reading buddy" at work tomorrow! Love that I now have a "reading buddy" at work! It encourages me to actually leave the office for lunch every once in awhile and is yet another opportunity to discuss books! YAY!!!

There is so much to this ONE book! So very much! I highly recommend it.