The Celebrants

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of drug overdose, suicide, terminal illness, and nonconsensual sex.

Jordan is a PR executive and owns a firm with his husband, Jordy. He and his parents immigrated from Colombia when Jordan was eight, and he expresses a desire to return to Bogotá near the end of his life. He has prostate cancer and is in remission for almost five years before it comes back with a terminal prognosis. Jordan was raised Catholic and, while he is described as an atheist, he grapples with his own mortality and belief in an afterlife. During Craig’s funeral, he concludes the service with “Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, with a few alterations,” then explains his background when his friends are surprised: “I knew you were raised Catholic. I just didn’t know you had all of that still inside you.” (257). Jordan’s evolving perspective on mortality is exigent because of his terminal cancer diagnosis, and his primary arc as a character is in his perspective on death. While he begins with a youthful and invincible attitude, he has a near-death experience in the skydiving portion of Naomi’s funeral, after which he realizes that people don’t have control over their fate.