Fates and furies
Ratings116
Average rating3.7
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years. At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed.
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends. But sometimes it's what you don't say-- to protect your partner's vanity, their reputation, their heart-- that makes a marriage hum. Until it doesn't ...
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The less said the better... But there's enough here to keep this tale feeling fresh.
Did not care for this one. One reviewer said it seemed like the characters were often compelled to lick other people's faces, which is true. Is that a thing? A symbolic thing? Otherwise, I already don't remember much about it.
At first, I found this book to be melodramatic, written in an overly-literary style. The fractured timeline felt fumbled, forced, and confusing while the characters were poorly depicted and unlike-able, so I had no image of them in my brain and carved no space for them in my heart.
However, by the second act, it grew on me. It fit Mathilde's consciousness much better than Lotto's, and her story and her character are more interesting, anyways. The writing seemed to make more sense as I began to see the meta of it, the play within the play, the tragedy. I still found the bracketed asides to be a bit much, but will admit once I let go of the absurdity of it, I fell in deeply. And though on the whole a bit depressing, in the end I found it to be...touching, almost hopeful, and in its own way, rather beautiful.
Though a slow starter and definitely not for everyone, if you can get past the hammed-up writing and poor character writing, it's a decent read.
