Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Fates and Furies

Reading this book felt like I was in a big room full of people with special headphones on where I could only pick up bits of a conversation at a time. I was being slowly led through by someone I didn’t quite know and didn’t quite understand. It felt like I meandered so dreamily past, but was given just enough time to understand each passing person’s deepest fears and thoughts. After time, quite a long time, being led through the room, my guide took me to the top of the stairs and I looked over the balcony and was so shocked to see how everything and everybody we had passed came together so vibrantly and horrifically and beautifully.

I appreciate this book for how much it made me contemplate human existence.

It was very long though.

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jhging's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Compelling. This kept me hooked - not just to see what happened next in their lives, but to understand the characters both as individuals and a couple. Really well-written.

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lockem2's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I love Lauren Groff. And her writing feels like a long long poem to me. In this book, sometimes a bit too long. And while they recognize Lotto's privilege, it's still a bit much for him to be so lovable - I also kind of dislike them both and also their whole community... mostly loved reading and it didn't get slow until the end? Might update this later after thinking on it more. Additionally, (and going to be vague to avoid spoilers) there was room for some topics to be explored more based on how often they were mentioned, and then simply not explored.

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valjeanval's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wouldn’t pick up a book that basically said “it’s about a marriage” except that Lauren Groff wrote it. What an incredible, complex, brilliant exploration of a marriage.

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writersrelief's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

With this title and the division of the book into two correlating sections—FATES to tell the husband’s story, and FURIES to tell the wife’s—Lauren Groff’s third novel promises an examination of marriage from either side.

In the first part of the novel, Groff tells us the story of Lancelot “Lotto” Satterwhite. From a childhood marked by tragedy and intense highs and lows, to his eventual achievements as a famous playwright, Lotto proves irresistible but self-centered. Lotto is happy to bumble along through a life that seems to unfold naturally along a pre-destined path to greatness—the one his mother swore from his birth he was meant for. He loves his wife Mathilde deeply, but Lotto is uncurious about what makes up her person. Instead, he fashions his own version of her stories, praising endlessly both the purity he perceives in her and the way in which she devotes herself to him, his ambitions, and their marriage.

This is followed by Mathilde’s story of her life and marriage to Lotto. Told from her perspective, Mathilde’s account does much to modify Lotto’s version of things, as expected. What may not be expected, however, is the fierceness with which Mathilde responds. Described by Lotto as a near saint—beautiful, loving, caring, unassuming, and kind—Mathilde also has a past marked by tragedy. But unlike Lotto, much of Mathilde’s is her own doing, and her anger and calculation are always present. Mathilde is far more secretive than Lotto imagines she could be (though he does uncover one of her major secrets near the end of the novel, and it shocks him completely). But she also gives much more to Lotto and their marriage than he realizes, in all his complacency. In short, Mathilde is not exactly the person Lotto thinks she is. Nor is she the person we imagine she is, even with being aware she’s something Lotto can’t…or won’t…or doesn’t care to perceive, given his preoccupation with himself and his own artistic goals.

Through some truly wild plot points and an endless sea of gorgeous, inventive prose, Groff builds one version of a marriage—and then, rather than simply tear down that version through the female perspective, she instead transforms it. Mathilde and Lotto love each other intensely—that much is always true. But the story of their marriage is never simple or black and white, not from either side. And though Mathilde’s version reveals much to us that we did not previously know, it also reaffirms what we may have thought would be contested upon hearing her story. Lush, complex, and above all, gorgeously written, FATES AND FURIES is a book you should savor for all its twists and turns, however slight—or ferocious—they may be from one moment to the next.

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