All men are mortal - S. de Beauvoir

I still wonder whether, given the Autorin, one should ask: but what about women? The book does not seem to go in that direction, though, which I can only be happy about. That, or the point went completely over my head.

The most direct interpreation for the title, given the book, is for me the following: all humans are mortal, ergo a human being who should happen to become immortal would thereby not be a human being anymore. An immortal human being is as paradoxical as dry water or loud silence¹.

We follow the life of Fosca, who happened to become immortal in the 14th century or something like that and is therefore still around in the twentieth. There are several interesting recurring themes in his life, I liked the idea of an action having value not because of the possible reward, but of the incurred risk.

Elaboro: an action granting a great reward for a small risk or loss is deemed reasonable. Very large pizza for very low price. Or very large pizza, but beforehand we flip four coins, and if all four give head then you have to pay 20€, otherwise nothing. So it makes sense to play (all men like pizza, per chiosare l’autrice). One of the points in the book is that the amount of undertaken risk can be used to measure the value of an action. I can walk under the rain to bring flowers to someone or I can have them delivered; the same flowers have a different value to the eye of the receiver according to whether I risked catching a cold or not. It comes to the point that the flowers - the reward - do not enter the equation at all, they are just an embodiment of the risk. In the novel the protagonist is immortal, so he never risks anything, so all things are meaningless, worthless for him. It’s like playing poker with monopoli money.

There was a similar point raised in The Sympathizer, at some point. Having nothing worth dying for is equivalent to having nothing worth living for, so in that case being dead and being alive is the same thing. That’s more or less the idea here as well.

There is more. It’s not an awesome book, but it’s a good book, which is more than you can ask (and than you on average get).