At first I wondered about this, but gradually I came to understand / accept it better, although the structure of the book makes it tricky. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a time travel novel, even though the chapters jumped back and forth in time. Addy lives in chronological time, so important events or eras don’t stand out to her as critical moments in history. She tries to explain this to Henry at one point. He says:
“Three hundred years is such a long time. You were there for wars and revolutions. You saw trains and cars and planes and televisions. You witnessed history as it was happening.”
Addie frowns. “I guess so,” she says, “but I don’t know; history is something you look back on, not something you really feel at the time. In the moment, you’re just … living” (p. 236).
For Addie to participate in significant historical events might have been an over-the-top addition to a story that already has a wild premise.
I suppose some people expect it – presidents and kings and movie stars and whatnot. But more interesting to me are the stories of people who had no clue that they would be remembered, and would probably be very surprised. Vivian Maier, for example. I saw a wonderful exhibit of her work at the Chicago History Museum a few years ago.
“During her lifetime, Maier’s photographs were unknown and unpublished; many of her negatives were never developed.”
Henry Darger is another one (I learned about him through our CC Book discussion of The Latecomer): Henry Darger - Wikipedia
A close friend/husband/17-year-old daughter stayed at an expensive hotel in Colorado. The daughter decided to spend some time in the hot tub while her parents visited with friends. There was an older gentlemen in it at the time. He greeted her and they made polite conversation for a bit before he asked her if she knew who he was. She had no idea. He told her his name which didn’t ring any bells either. When she decided to rejoin her parents, he told her to tell her parents that she had visited with Robert Redford. He bet they’d know who he was. They did.
I’ve since wondered how a star of his magnitude feels when he realizes that his fame has slipped enough that he can go unrecognized in ways that would have once not been possible.
A great relief in my life was to go away to college where I was relatively anonymous. When you are one of a large family (6 siblings) on a small island, many people know you, your sibs or your parents. Going away and being unknown as quite a balm when every time you turn around growing up, folks ask you to tell your parent/sib/whomever they said, “Hi!.”
“Mom/dad/sib, another stranger today said to say “hi” to you, so Hi!”
By the time I graduated law school, I was OK to be one of my huge family again but had enjoyed relative anonymity for those few years.
This book was in my mind today at synagogue. During Yom Kippur, there’s a special memorial service which includes a prayer for the departed. (It tends to be the most heavily attended portion of this day.) The special service usually includes a responsive reading; our book titles it “We Remember You.” There are prayers you can recite for each loved one - parents, spouses, children - which starts, “May God remember the soul of my <family member; add name>.” Many if not most synagogues also publish a special memorial booklet where you can donate to include the names of those you remember. There’s another prayer for the departed asking for perfect peace to the souls who have gone to their eternal rest.
And in general in Judaism, when referring to a lost loved one by name, one adds the phrase, “May their memory be a blessing.”
So the concept of being remembered by name and and listed in a book is very important! And that the deeds one did live on in the memories of others. And here in the CC book we get a name that would not be remembered and a soul that would be gone. And there we have Henry, a nice (albeit depressed) Jewish boy who studied theology and whose parents hoped would become a Rabbi. And he’s the one who remembers and puts Addie’s name in a book! Anyway, it did make for some interesting thoughts during services today.
Apparently V.E Schwab had a Jewish father and agnostic mother - although there’s no suggestion she practiced in any way, perhaps she encountered this part of Jewish services and it influenced her for this book.
My guess is that after a lifetime of being hounded by fans, he would have found it delightful! RIP Robert Redford. I had a crush on you.
Well-known actors must constantly struggle with the desire for fame vs. the desire for anonymity. There is definitely a “Be careful what you wish for” element to their lives. And of course, that’s a theme in Addie LaRue. I just looked up the origin of the phrase, which can be traced back to Aesop’s Fables, 6th century B.C. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
I had a similar experience, growing up in a big family with six siblings. When I got married and changed my last name, I told my husband it was like entering the Witness Protection Program.
We all have varying levels of family resemblance in my family, so changing the last name didn’t really make that much difference. My house is less than 2 miles from the home I grew up in and we run into a lot of people we’ve known for many decades. As an adult I am fine with it. As a kid and teen I didn’t like it much—too many eyes & ears.
Seven freckles. One for every love she’d have, that’s what Estele had said, when the girl was still young.
One for every life she’d lead.
One for every god watching over her.
Now they mock her, those seven marks. Promises. Lies. She’s had no loves, she’s lived no lives, she’s met no gods, and now she is out of time.
Were they lies? I don’t think so. Estele had enough magic about her to be telling the truth.
In re-reading this passage, I had an epiphany. The people to whom Addie is drawn–Toby, Remy, Matteo, Samantha, James, Henry, Luc–are not the loves that Estele refers to.
Rather, Addie’s Seven Loves are what those people represent: the Seven Arts. Music, Sculpture, Painting, Literature, Architecture, Theater and Film. The arts are what keep Addie’s heart full, and the means by which she will always be remembered.
I like Mary’s idea, but I can also see that Henry could be the first love. Luc the first god. And so on. Maybe she will find six other people that will be able to remember her because they also made a deal with Luc.
I loved it when she tells Luc that she is not really human anymore. Maybe she can learn to be a god too?
I wonder about the seven gods watching over her. Yes, maybe Luc is the first of those seven, but still…it would have been nice to have a hint that the gods of light were listening and assisting in some way. It appears–and Addie firmly believes–that those gods completely ignore her.
I liked the black and gold cover of the novel, made to look like a constellation vector. It also made me think of the Seven Pleiades constellation. And while the story of those seven sisters doesn’t mirror Addie’s, her own seven point “constellation” does suggest that she is–or will one day be–a mythological character. Bea’s dissertation is the first step toward that.
My book cover and jacket are navy blue with gold stars.
Yes, Addie is not human because of her very long life and the curse but she’s an interesting hybrid because she still has feelings and understands humans.
It does make you wonder why Luc wants souls — does he have a quota he needs to keep going? Is it just a matter of pride that he gets his end of the deal? Something else?
