The Professor of Immortality A Novel

by Eileen Pollack

Professor Maxine Sayers once found her personal and professional life so fulfilling that she founded the Institute of Future Studies, a program dedicated to studying the effects of technology on our culture and finding ways to prolong human life. But when her beloved husband dies, she is so devastated she can barely get out of bed. To make matters worse, her son, Zach, has abruptly quit his job in Silicon Valley and been out of contact for seven months.

Maxine is jolted from her grief by her sudden suspicion that a favorite former student (and a former close friend of her son) might be a terrorist called the Technobomber and that Zach might either be involved in or become a victim of this extremist’s bombing. Deserting her teaching responsibilities, her ailing mother, and an appealing suitor, Maxine feels compelled to set out and search for her son in order to warn and protect him, even as she knows she should report her suspicions to the FBI to prevent greater carnage.

Genres: Fiction

275 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2019

About the author

Eileen Pollack grew up in Liberty, New York. She has received fellowships from the Michener Foundation and the MacDowell Colony, and her stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, the Literary Review, the AGNI Review, Playgirl, and the New Generation. She lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, and teaches at Tufts University. She won the Pushcart Prize for her story “Past, Future, Elsewhere.”

Reviews

[Lyndi (mibookobsession) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Professor of Future Studies, Maxine teaches the impact of technology on future generations. She has taught countless students until they all seem to blend together, but Thadeus Rapaczynski was different. With radical views that sometimes mirror her own inner thoughts, Thaddy was, however, socially awkward and lonely. She encourages him to befriend her son Zach. It's been years since that time, Maxine has lost her beloved husband, her son has gone missing, and there's a mysterious serial bomber causing terror. Maxine has a sickening suspicion she knows the Technobomber's identity, but could her son somehow be involved?
This story is fiction, but the author acknowledges that she drew heavily from the details of the Unabomber case, even to making Thaddy a student at the University of Michigan. The story started slow with the description of her university department, her depression and loneliness after losing her husband, and caring for her elderly mother. But once her suspicions start to form and she's on a mission to save her son, the action picked up and I couldn't wait to find out how things ended. I originally received an ARC of this book, but the formatting was so unintelligible I couldn't read it. It's been the only ARC ever that I didn't finish. I was glad to find a secondhand copy of my own and I really enjoyed it.

[BookTrib.com]

By page three of Eileen Pollack’s The Professor of Immortality (Delphinium Books), we have already learned that our protagonist, a 54-year-old professor of a questionable line of study at a local college, is a grieving widow of eight years, her adult son has been missing for seven months, and a Match.com date slipped out the back door of a restaurant without saying goodbye (and without paying the bill).

The trifecta of nightmares for any middle-aged woman.

She’s soldiering on, though, and chapter titles keep us informed of what she’s doing. First the mundane. She “…Gets Out of Bed (Chapter 1). She “…Drags Herself to Work” (Chapter 2). She “…Teaches a Class.” But things start to get a little knotty at “…Regrets Something She Failed To Do” and “…Opens a Package She Knows She Shouldn’t.”

It’s a clever literary trick which made it hard to put the book down.

Professor Maxine Sayers has more on her plate than dealing with grief, worry, and loneliness. Her aging, addled mother is in a nursing home; Maxine goes to feed her and keep her company, get her to her hair appointments, and remind her what time it is. Politics at work are dicey; she fears her department will lose its funding. A fellow professor is making gentle, but unwanted, romantic advances. Lastly, reading the newspaper accounts of bombs arriving in certain people’s mail has begun to light up a dark recess of her mind.

The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/10/professo...

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since her husband Sam has died, Ann Arbor professor Maxine Sayers feels lonely. She fully dedicates her life to her Institute of Future Studies where she researches the effects of technology on the people knowing that, eventually, her small world might be closed down as they do not produce anything commercially useful. When her son Zach quits his Silicon Valley job without a warning and vanishes without any further notice and her mother’s health deteriorates, she feels quite depressed. But things become even worse when a series of bomb attacks by the so-called “Technobomber” remind her of incidents of the past: might her son be involved in these terrorist doings? When his former MIT professor is seriously hurt, she knows that she has to find him and she has the bad feeling that she knows who is behind it all.

When reading Eileen Pollack’s novel, I was immediately reminded of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski who bears a lot of resemblance to one of the main characters in the novel. The author might be inspired by these events, yet, they are not the main and only focus in the book. Pollack writes about family bonds, about the loss of a beloved person, technology, feminism and chauvinism in the academic world, and, first and foremost, about the question of how we want to live and what is important for us. Once I started, I was totally immersed and read the book in just one sitting which is also due to the fact that towards the end, it becomes a suspenseful crime novel.

Even though most of the issues addressed in the novel are interesting and provide some food for thought, Maxine’s teaching was the one that stimulated my pondering most. Especially the scenes of her classroom where she discusses the impact of technology and questions about how far we are willing to following technological advances are superb. Unfortunately, this topic is a bit abandoned for the Technobomber plot line which also has some fascinating psychological aspects to offer but was a bit weaker in my opinion.

A rather unusual combination of campus and crime novel that provides not only much to think about but also a lot of suspense.

[AcademicEditor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a huge nostalgia trip for me. Pollack's description of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan is a fine-detail portrait of how they were 20 years ago. The economically diverse student body hailing from all over Michigan is a thing of the past, replaced by wealthy out-of-state and international students. Burns Park is now one of the priciest neighborhoods in town, in no way "middle-class."

Anyway, this was an interesting psychological journey--what would you do if you began to suspect someone you knew of terrible crimes?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

[Coralee Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is so much more than just a romain a clef of Theodore Kaczynski's life and times. Kacysnski, aka the Unabomber, was a mathematical genius. His mind veered into madness. He became a recluse in Montana who became a domestic terrorist.

Pollack turns his story on its head by focusing instead on Professor Maxine Sayers. Her once fulfilling life's work, the Institute of Future Studies now seems barren and unimportant. Her husband is dead, her mother is dying, her son is missing. Life seems at once both overwhelming and meaningless.
Grief has numbed her mind and life.

When she reads the Technobomber's (read Unabomber) manifesto she is struck by the wording. Could it be that one of her former students is the Technobomber? Much worse, this student was more to her than some one who turned in papers and occupied a desk. He was Thaddy, a brilliant mind who needed 'mothering' more than instruction. Thaddy who became a friend to her eccentric brilliant son, Zach.

Spurred on my horrifying what ifs? Maxine drops everything to pursue the possibility that Zach is in trouble. Pollack describes a grim realistic search that pulls the reader onward. The out come is not telegraphed. The writing is superb. This novel is not a flash in the pan. It is one book clubs and suspense readers will treasure.

Highly recommended

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Professor of Immortality, by Eileen Pollack, is very much a mixed bag. The protagonist is a professor, consumed with grief and regret in her personal life. Her professional life is equally troubled as she contends with an administration that is wavering in support of her projects, students who are sometimes dismissive and contemptuous, and her own self-doubt about her competence and her choices. Although every teacher I know has shared some of those feelings on occasion, the deep dive into the Pollack’s professor’s angst consumes a good portion of the novel’s first half, with little plot development. To say it is a slow read is an understatement.

And, then something changes. The plot careens forward. We see the Professor in the context of her relationships with her son, her mom and her friends, and what emerges is a portrait of a woman committed to those people, and the values of love and loyalty. Despite her grief and doubts about her past, and her desire to see into the future, the book closes with her recognition of the abiding importance of the present. For that reason alone, I think this novel is worth reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Delphinium Publishing for the opportunity to read an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kim McGee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maxine is adrift. She once had a husband, a successful career and a clever son working in Silicon Valley. Now, she isn't as quick to get to her job as a noted professor at the University of Michigan, her husband is dead and her son has gone off the grid plus there is a madman called the Technobomber who is blowing up people and it may be someone she and her son know quite well. She worries that there may be a connection to the bomber and her son's disappearance and she also knows that in telling what she knows to the FBI she may be giving up her son. This is a classic tale of doing the right thing, taking a hard look at our own mortality and finding our own place in the universe. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

[Marion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based loosely on the life of the Unabomber but told from the perspective of his former professor who begins to suspect she knows the mystery bomber’s identity. The author has assembled quite a cast of colorful and engaging characters but the plot meanders slowly so I had a hard time getting through it. The story takes an odd turn once the FBI becomes involved with some unlikely and ultimately tragic developments.

[Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read, definitely. vivid descriptions, well paced dialogues. The plot is rather unusual with lots of twists. It is a real pleasure to read Eileen Pollack, cleverness is everywhere but also humanity.
The concept of the novel is great. It mixes fiction with physics and action with the importance of love.
I enjoyed a contemporary, weel told story. I would recommend this book.

[Heather Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Professor of Immortality is unique book with some great twists. There are some characters and it is a unique storyline.

[Kim Cavadel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read with interetesting characters and lots of plot twists. I was very happy with the authors writing style and ability to create a vivid world.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing novel that kept me reading quickly.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slowly-paced fiction, with the fully-fleshed characterization rarely seen when there is a mystery to solve.

[Jason McCracken · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an okay book, but I think the author wanted/thought it to be much smarter than it actually was.