Little is ever fully developed, though, leaving this book feeling less like a single, satisfying novel than a summary of many other potentially interesting ones. On top of this, the more recent histories of Ari his twin brother, Sasha and Franz are recounted, such as Franz's testy relationship with Ari's grandmother. Many, many famous people from history who are not Spinozas make fleeting appearances as well: Freud, Voltaire, and Goya are but a few. There is Israel, personal physician to the king of Portugal his son, Chaim Moishe the cabalist and French writer Hector, among others.
His great-uncle Franz "Fernando" Scharf (related by marriage) is a prolific storyteller with a vast repertoire of tales about past Spinozas. The narrator, Ari Spinoza, is a direct descendant of the great philosopher Baruch Spinoza. This lengthy novel is crammed with history and ideas, yet readers may find the weightiest thing about it is the poundage of the actual volume. 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.” When it was complete, he used his system to encrypt the recipe for the elixir of immortality. Spain, Rembrandt’s Amsterdam, the French Revolution, Freud’s Vienna, and the horrors of both world wars. To whom could he entrust the recipe for the Raimundo plant. 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. 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 Since the eleventh century, the Spinoza family has passed down, from father to son, a secret manuscript containing the recipe for immortality. 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. Since the eleventh century, the Spinoza family has passed down, from father to son, a secret manuscript containing the recipe for immortality. A mesmerizing debut novel that spans a thousand years of European and Jewish history seen through the beguiling members of the Spinoza family