Do you ever wonder why you took so long to get to a book that others raved about? That, with Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies.
I am loathe to reveal too much about the plot, short of saying that it’s the story of Lotto and Mathilde, who marry at age twenty-two, optimistic and with great plans for their future. It then tracks key moments in their 24-year marriage.
The story is told in two parts, the first from Lotto’s perspective, and the second from Mathilde’s. The risk with this kind of structure is that it becomes repetitive – Fates and Furies is anything but. Actually, it’s genius.
If you haven’t read this book but intend to, avoid spoilers at all costs. In fact, it’s critical. Because you think that when you get to Mathilde’s part, you know the story and yet Groff turns things on their head and spins them around. I was reminded of the final episode of Gossip Girl, when I realised the answer had always been there and I wanted to watch all six seasons again, through a new lens. Same with this book – very tempted to read Lotto’s story over with Mathilde’s version of events echoing in my mind (sorry if you’re offended by the Gossip Girl comparison, Lauren Groff).
What I loved most:
01. The wonderfully compelling parent-child relationships (but each with enough that was unresolved, in order to keep the narrative moving).
[He]…could not hold this sorrow. He was too weak. (Grief is for the strong, who use it as fuel for burning.)
02. Having all of these assumptions about Lotto and more so about Mathilde and then having them shot to smithereens. Always an excellent reading experience.
03. Groff’s incisiveness. And I can’t give examples because every quote I marked potentially contains a spoiler!
04. The joy of being completely immersed in a book that had me reading at every spare moment.
4.5/5
She put on the overhead porch fan and set the tray down on the little table, taking a lemon bar for herself. She’d survived on wine and sugar for months because, fuck it, she never really got a childhood, and what was grief but an extended tantrum to be salved by sex and candy?
