Welcome to Quill Quotes Book Club’s discussion of You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles! We hope you enjoyed the book. Note, that this discussion covers the full book and will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t finished reading yet you may want to go back to The Forward Collection Summary Page for the other book discussions.
Kevin’s Thoughts
I really loved this one up until the ending. The idea of genetics and statistical prediction of babies like a credit score is super interesting and may not be that far in the future. The overarching question is then “should we?” I’d like to think we can be trusted to use it wisely to end genetic diseases / undue hardship but think designer babies would more likely lead to everyone being made tall, thin, smart, etc. This would probably result in some other differentiating trait becoming desirable to set people apart or worse, a lack of genetic diversity ending humanity.
The different projections of Daniel would be hard to pick from. And, I think, even harder to raise the child when you’re constantly expecting this or that to happen. I’d probably have to pick Daniel One since it seemed the least hardship with a still satisfying life but the other two had higher highs, offset with lower lows. I can understand Sam going to the bar after the projections but found the imagining of his wife and HT there jarring and hard to follow. Past that point, the story took a turn I really thought was unnecessary to the overall theme of whether you should design your baby. I’d have preferred to have a discussion between Sam and his wife on which to choose or even just end it after the projections and Sam being confused/angry with it all. Instead, it felt like a rushed add-on theme that Sam’s “specimen” was being collected as data for the military. I gave the book 4 stars but it would have been 5 with a different ending.
Favorite Quote
“We are who we are, right? There’s no point in pushing our personalities uphill.”
– Amor Towles, You Have Arrived at Your Destination
Brooke’s Thoughts
I thought I was going to like this one a lot more than I did. I thought it was going to be more about gene editing and the moral and social dilemmas associated with that. The projections of the 3 potential children were interesting though. I also liked the discussion of the 3 acts in everyone’s life. I listened to this one and I thought David Harbour did a good job. Overall, I gave this one 3.5 stars. I guess I was just wanting something that was closer to the movie GATTACA.
Favorite Quote
“We like to think of it as genetic nudging.”
– Amor Towles, You Have Arrived at Your Destination
You Have Arrived at Your Destination Discussion Prompts/Questions
Feel free to comment whatever thoughts and questions you have! But if you aren’t sure where to start, consider some of the prompts/questions below:
- Which Daniel projection would you choose?
- Do you think designer babies will become a thing? Should they be allowed?
- Do you think everyone’s life has 3 acts?
- How’d you like the ending?
- Did you read or listen to the book? Which do you prefer? Did you like the narrator?
- Share a favorite quote!
Commenting
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We hope you enjoy this discussion and join us again next week!
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