Name: Fates and Furies
ISBN: 9781594634475

Lauren Groff

"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 ... things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed"--

Fates and Furies

Jennifer

The first half of the book focuses on Lancelot (Lotto) and the marriage from his perspective. If you've ever watched the show Californication on Showtime, think: Lancelot = Hank Moody Chollie = Charlie Runkle ...except way less lighthearted. And way more vindictive. If you haven't seen that show, Lotto is a self-absorbed writer with an inexplicable sexual drive. Chollie is the obnoxious friend. The wife in this book is quiet, soft, and loving...until the second half of the book. Her perspective wowed me. I wasn't ready for her backstory. Overall, entertaining to see both sides of the story. Based on other reviews, I was expecting to be moved and changed, but instead I'm just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway from Riverhead Books and I'm so glad I did!

Megan Parrott

Really enjoyed this as an audiobook. Loved that it featured multiple perspectives and a generational saga (that is my shit!).

Ryan Mateyk

Intense, complex, poetic, mystical, gorgeous!

Andrea Profit

Terrible book. Not really sure what the purpose was. I skipped the last about 80 pages because I couldn't take it anymore🥴

Arianna

Kyle Curry

Amazing. Moving. Dammit, why is this book so good.

Amy Thibodeau

Brilliant in parts. The last chapter was astonishing and perfect. Overall though I disliked spending time with these characters and found the writing pretentious. Would probably give it a 3.5 if Goodreads allowed for half marks. Without that last chapter, it would be a 2.5. Maybe my expectations were too high?

Fates and Furiesf

Elisa Bieg

What can I say about this book? It was peculiar. It was LONG, painfully so by the time I had gotten to the last 50 pages. I was ready to be done around the end of the first half, and somewhat relieved when the narrative changed to Mathilde's point of view, but after the first interesting bit, the book got relegated to bathroom read and lasted what felt like forever and a day.

I hated that it was all written in third person, the long descriptions leaving this distance between reader and characters, even with their feelings so perfectly put into words, that you'd think it would be impossible not to relate, not to bridge the gap; the twists and what might have been shocking revelations falling flat because they seemed so remote. What is The pony od reading nearly 400 pages without feeling close to the characters, invested in what happens to them? What is the point if it's all told in such a way that it makes you not care, as long as they get on with it? Come one now — hardly any dialogue; the poignant, quote-worthy bits lots in an endless blah blah blah that skirted the line into pretentiousness a little too often, like someone liking the sound of their own voice so much that they stop caring whether anyone is listening and end up talking a lot of shit without saying anything much at all.

I don't regret reading it, but I won't read it again. 

Groff does have skill and creativity and I might check out her other work in the future, but this... I am giving myself a mental high-five for getting to the end!

Dee B. 

Really not my cup of tea.... ( www.ithinkihaveaproblem.webs.com )

Celeste Richardson

3 stars for content, 5 for writing, averaged out to 4.

Okay, confession time: I don’t like literary fiction. I used to, but it started feeling stale to me, much like a lot of YA; any book I picked up in either genre for a while just felt like a lesser repetition of something I had read before. I hate predictability and pretentiousness, which a lot of recent literary fiction seems to have in spades. That’s why I tend to stick to fantasy or books that I completely expect to be predictable, like a Nora Roberts romance or some Christian fiction. Because sometimes predictability is comfortable, like a bubble bath for your brain. 

Fates and Furies was most definitely NOT a bubble bath for my brain. I would’ve never picked this book up if it hadn’t been my bookclub’s selection this month, and I would’ve been missing out. I get the hype on this one, I really do. The book was pretentious, yes, but it had every right to be. It was never predictable. The writing was stunning. The characters were real, but I hope I never in my life meet anyone like any of them. I didn’t like them, and so I didn’t expect to feel any sympathy for them. But I did. There were times when I was uncomfortable or disgusted or both, but the book was so compelling that I never felt the urge to put it down, even though I found some of the content distasteful. And the writing was exceptional. Groff crafted something exquisite here, and managed to never give anything away until she was good and ready to do so.

I feel like I could write a fairly massive essay on this book, but I would hate to spoil anything for someone. Spoiler tags only help so much. I can see this book being taught in colleges one day, and would love to sit in on that discussion. It was a story of love and lies and fallibility and the grotesqueness that some seen to associate with real life. In my opinion, love is honest and forgiving and covers a multitude of sins. Life is mostly good, and people are mostly good. I’m an optimist. Groff’s writing comes across as extremely pessimistic to me. Life is hard, it’s true. I’ve been through my share of tough times. But I had an amazing God and husband and family and group of friends to get me through everything. I’m honest with them. I trust them. And so much of the pain in this book could’ve been avoided with some honesty and trust. 

Did I like this book? No. This was not an enjoyable read. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. It was a disaster, but a beautiful disaster, as enthralling as a hurricane or a wildfire or a lightning storm. 

For more of reviews, as well as my own fiction and thoughts on life, check out my blog, Celestial Musings

Read for my face-to-face bookclub!

Cindy Lieberman

Just too many layers of secrets and improbable behavior. Some interesting writing. One character describes how people smell in oddly specific (and seemingly irrelevant) ways. His story (Fates) is linear. Hers (Furies) bounces all over the place, illuminating earlier scenes by revealing more hidden “truths.” In the end the story was too far fetched to be believable, instructive or inspiring.

I picked this up randomly at a cabin. I was up until 3 am so that I could finish it. It is that good.

jiaqi kang

lis recommended this to me saying she picked it up and couldn't put it down for a whole day, and also that the style you either love or hate... i agree with both! binged this entire thing on the flight. the style was definitely hard to get used to, and its pretentiousness was especially clear in moments of the story without much action. the second half was a bit melodramatic and i'm not really sure where it went. anyways this was fun i guess!

Carroll Lachnit

Slightly contrived, but I liked it. Burning female anger!

Bob Simone

Liam Byrne 

The first thing that hits you upon reading ‘Fates and Furies’ by Lauren Groff is the darkness that pervades throughout the narrative even as early as the second chapter as the focus splits in two. The narrative voice that occasionally adds a greater understanding to an exchange or a thought positions us to follow Lotto’s life story, one that we are thrust into at the point of birth and not enough years away from his father’s passing. He is ‘the shining one’ and it is his story that is representative of the ‘Fates’ that are mentioned in the title of the novel.
The speed at which Groff takes us through Lotto’s life, his eventual marriage to Mathilde and his career as a failed actor and eventually successful writer is indicative of a feeling of time slipping away for most of the characters in the story. Once bright young things, the passing of the months and the years – sometimes in a matter of sentences – presents a world that begins to dull around the edges; the march towards the mundane, punctuated with stories of death, divorce and childlessness. The parties that went on into the small hours gave way to depression and self-doubt as the reality of an unfulfilled life takes over.

Throughout, it is the relationship between Lotto and Mathilde that carries him through. In the first half of the book, she appears rather than acts more often than not, a mirror through which we see Lotto’s thoughts and frustrations. It isn’t until ‘Furies’, the second half of the novel, where Mathilde really gets to shine as we see things through her eyes. Behind every good man is an even greater woman, and Mathilde definitely tries to be that for Lotto, though sometimes in a fashion that felt as if it lacked believability.
 
Indeed, whilst Groff’s book is eminently readable and the prose does a wonderful job of selling the reader the passionate love that Lotto and Mathilde hold onto as best they can, there are moments towards the end of the novel where things do spiral out of control. Mathilde’s early years, in particular, do stretch the boundaries of plausibility, and whilst this view of the story through her eyes adds pleasing layers to the narrative, it did feel a little too coincidental at times the manner at which elements of plot managed to link up further down the line.

The toll that living takes upon several of the characters only helps to add to the foreboding tone that is often just below the surface. The body count is surprisingly high for a book that focuses on a romance between two people as family members die, acquaintances and lovers commit suicide, and we even get some sexual assault thrown in during a time when Lotto was struggling to fill the void left by his father. The only thing that competes with death and love is sex, though it is both lauded and derided in equal measure as the raunchy days of youth turn into the tired attempts of age.

What Groff manages to do in ‘Fates and Furies’ is present a love story about a twenty-four year marriage that ends up feeling less than romantic when viewed across the whole. Even though their love is presented with effective description, the emotion is often fuelled by success or maintained through lies and secrecy. By splitting the two narratives so effectively, Groff manages to present the darker underbelly of what we have witnessed after firmly establishing the relationship of Lotto and Mathilde in all its seeming honesty.

Emily Ruth Carter

The structure of this book is wonderful and like experiencing a story in a series of mirrors. The content of the book was just more sexually focused than my personal preference. I also felt like there were few redeeming qualities in the characters to make me want to root for them. Though, that may be beside the author's point. Groff's storytelling is very good, though.

Olivera Mitić

Poslednjih 30ak strana me pogodilo tamk gde sam najtanja, a ne znam čak ni zašto.

Beatriz

All I can say is wow. When I started this book I had no idea of the twists and turns this story would take. It is beautifully written, although it can be confusing at times if you're not paying it enough attention. I'm not sure why I liked this book so much, there were times where I really enjoyed it and times where I thought that maybe it wasn't that great. However, at the end of it I can honesty say this is a really good book with an interesting story and it leaves you thinking. It surprised me in a very good way

Cindy

I almost considered abandoning the book throughout the first half. The dialogue felt -- not contrived, but something about the formality is far from believable. And I get it, it's designed to feel like a modern-day version of a Greek tragedy, but the dialogue doesn't feel evocative of any time. Nothing felt like a buildup. It was stagnant. Mathilde did not intrigue me. Lotto's backstory bored me. Their marriage story elicited a half-hearted shrug from me.

And then I read the second half ("Furies") and that was what sealed the deal for me. The second half made me furiously flip back to the Fates section and cross-reference what I'd been reading this whole time. It makes you question (furiously -- in a fitting way!) everything that you have been led to believe about Mathilde and Lotto and the cast of characters who oftentimes became their collateral. The second half is really both the building of the Jenga tower and the force that threatens to knock it down in slow, devastating motion. The first half was like being presented with the Jenga blocks and wondering what you're supposed to do with a bunch of wood blocks.

But oh man, that second half.

b.andherbooks

Uh, what did I just read? Feeling like I've been through a tempest, which is apt due to the cover, title, and Shakespeare references.

Marriage is a strange beast, and the one Groff examines here is maybe the strangest. My best comparison is to John Irving, but unfortunately lacking his biting wit. This one bites, and never let's go.

Elad Schulman

This was a big miss for me. There were aspects I did enjoy, but I just didn't connect at all to the characters and the plot was very dull. I liked the second part a little more than the first part, but by the time I had gotten to the second part I just wanted it to be over, honestly. 

Chelsea White

I tried so hard to like this book. I struggled through the the first part (The Fates), maybe because I didn't really empathize with Lotto? I didn't find him compelling I the slightest, whereas Mathilde intrigued me. I definitely liked part two (The Furies) better, but since it was only one third of the book getting to that point was a struggle. I almost didn't finish this several times, but I pushed through since so many people liked it. I don't think there's anything wrong with the book, I think I wasn't an ideal reader for it.

Sameer Vasta

Early in Lauren Groff's 
  Fates and Furies
, a cat watches an outdoor dinner party, and we are privy to the cat's thoughts of incredulity as it watches the humans react in shock to the falling of fat raindrops, a rainstorm the cat knew was coming by the smell in the air, many minutes before.

There are moments when I wonder what our cat is thinking as she stares at us, sometimes with curiosity and sometimes with confusion, as we go about our daily lives. Cleo, our kitten, is young, still; her desire to know everything we are doing and be a part of all the activity comes from her age and her youthful vibrancy. The narrative in her head, however, is unknown to us: what is she thinking when we leave for the office in the morning, when we settle in bed for the night? What thoughts pass through her mind when we fold the laundry, turn on the stove, or even scoop her litter box?

We will never know Cleo's perspective on the world around her, because she will never be able to articulate them to us. All we can do, instead, is project our own impressions, build our own narrative of what her perspective may be—a narrative that is bound to be flawed, inaccurate. We will never know any better.

This, after all, is what Ms. Groff's novel is all about: unknowable perspectives. 
  Fates and Furies
 tells us the story of Lotto, a young man who grows up to be a renown playwright, upon whom fortune smiles for seemingly no reason, and Mathilde, his wife, working in the background—unknown to Lotto—to guide that fortune, to create the luck that seemingly naturally finds Lotto at every corner.

It is a novel in two parts, containing two distinct perspectives, two stories of the same life that could not be more different, but it is more than that. 
  Fates and Furies
 is a book that reminds us that the narratives we create, for ourselves and for others, are pocked with spots, gaps and holes we will never fill. Even those closest to us live lives that are utterly unknowable.

I will never know what Cleo, our kitten, is thinking behind those large, bright eyes, but this should not be troubling. After all, none of us will ever know what resides in the minds, the histories, the experiences, of those we love, no matter how much we share. Ms. Groff captures that reality beautifully, if not somewhat dispiritedly, in 
  Fates and Furies
. Lives are lived together, but the stories of our lives are our own.

(originally published on inthemargins.ca)