What people loved most about her husband was how mellifluous their own voices sounded when they echoed back. Like most deadly attractive people, he had a hollow at the centre of him. Oh, Lotto, Mathilde thought with loving despair. As with many aspects of this novel though, it could be argued that such excess was intentional, designed to magnify the impact of Groff’s selective and striking lucidity. But just as Groff pushes the envelope with her characters, the line between lyricism and literary decadence is crossed at times. Groff’s prose is for the most part beguiling, and aptly described by Robin Black in the New York Times as a ‘ linguistically pyrotechnic narrative‘. While I consider myself an attentive reader, I’ve still come away feeling there will inevitably be meaning that’s slipped past me. From wordplay, to striking metaphor… literary, theatrical and mythological references abound. There is so much going on in this novel, so much cleverness – some sign-posted, other elements more subtle. Can deception, whether by lie or omission, ever be a truly self-less act? Front and centre is the art of deception, ignorance and self-sacrifice, and its ostensible motivations. Thematically Fates and Furies explores the extent to which people are actors in their own lives, and whether they are in lead or supporting roles. She sharpened something that threatened to go diffuse in him. All his restless energy focussed tightly on her. It was as if she’d lived all her life in the chilly shadows and someone had led her out into the sun. Her pale and wounded face, a face that had watched and never smiled now never stopped smiling. While described as a story of a marriage, it really is much broader than that – it is a story about lives, the myriad choices made throughout them and their cascading impacts.Ĭreativity and artistic pursuits feature large in the story, as do enigmatic characters exhibiting varying degrees of self-awareness – from the narcissistic Lotto to the chameleon-like Mathilde. Since Fates and Furies then went on to be named among the Best Books of 2015 by the likes of Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal and many more, I’ll admit to being keen to see what all the fuss was about.įates and Furies is epic in both scope and ambition. I’m not typically drawn to ‘domestic drama’ but Lauren Groff’s literary credentials and this novel’s dual narrative framework piqued my interest pre-release. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but behind closed doors things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets.Īt age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love and destined for greatness.

Fates and furies review