Fates and Furies

by Lauren Groff

Lancelot (Lotto) [a spoiled rich boy and aspiring actor] and Mathilde [an art historian with a sketchy past] meet at a wild college party and are instantly attracted. This attraction leads to a quick marriage, against the wishes of Lotto's mother, who immediately discontinues his financial support and cuts him out of the will [and his sizable inheritance]. Their life is a continuous string of drinking and parties and plays and sex and play writing and deception [but only one of them knows about this aspect] and climbing up the ladder of success. You get to hear about all this fun from Lotto's perspective [Fates] and then Mathilde's [Furies] and see just how differently the two viewed and managed their married life.

I don't know anyone like these people. Perhaps they exist [I suspect only in the movies] but if they are real and you know some of them maybe you'll also gain some insight into marriages. The book is rife with Shakespearian references and very fantastical and quite popular. For me, the fates section dragged but I stuck with it because commenters said it picked up in the furies part, and there did come a moment when I got hooked! Briefly. And then it passed. [but I finished it anyway].

If you noticed my brackets ..... it's something I picked up from Fates and Furies and if you read it you'll see them. Lots. [One word sentences are another winning technique] And these must be winning techniques since it is Amazon's best book of 2015, an NYT bestseller, a National Book Award finalist, and NPR book club selection. I was trying to be a bit neutral in my review since this is such a wildly popular book, and I'd be willing to discuss it with someone who loved it so maybe I could catch the love. But I didn't like it, and then I thought I might, and then I didn't really. I'd recommend it to certain readers, but I'm not sure what type of reader would like Fates and Furies, so I leave it up to you to decide if you're it. [and let me know]