paigeperry's review against another edition
2.0
I had such high expectations for this book and was left feeling empty. The words were beautiful even though many times they were trying to hard. The story was confusing and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop (it never did). The book jumps around in time a lot without warning. But the characters were interesting (although at times one dimensional). I kept reading because I kept wanting to know the characters. This book would be good to read with a friend or book club to discuss because resting in one head leaves it falling flat.
eric_roling's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed this book a lot. Many compare this to Gone Girl, but I think that is a stretch that just picks out one minor plot point. While all the character names are pretty out there: Lancelot/Lotto, Mathilde, Chollie, etc, the writing is nice and engaging. Definitely beach reading material - great one to get lost in. The book reads really easy but has some substance to it. There a lot of detail that you can pick out in the 2nd half if you pay attention, but it's not essential to understanding or enjoying the story. The construction of the book was nice - I like the idea of seeing the marriage from two sides. A lot of people say they don't like Mathilde, but she was my favorite character. I didn't think she was that unlikeable, especially for all that she endured.
nlgeiger's review against another edition
5.0
It unfurls through the first half with a languor that would make you impatient but for the writing. And then, the discord. The wow. The un-put-downableness. Awesome.
alixgb's review against another edition
5.0
This book was so good! I was only halfway through and I was already thinking I didn't want it to be over. The novel it split in half and told from the perspective of a husband and wife. Until you get to the wife's section (her's is the second half) you don't realize how entirely subsumed she is by her husband and by her role as a wife and of course literally because of the style of the novel. And then you see her. The husband's section mirrors his personality: written in a fairly chronological and straightforward way. The wife's section bounces around and has multiple flashbacks to childhood and through the marriage.
I want to write more, but I don't want to give too much away. I love, loved this book. I was simultaneously wanting to secret away to read it all the time and wanting to prolong the process as much as I could. Highly recommended.
I want to write more, but I don't want to give too much away. I love, loved this book. I was simultaneously wanting to secret away to read it all the time and wanting to prolong the process as much as I could. Highly recommended.
lilnublet's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ellensears's review against another edition
4.0
Loved Mathilde's character... felt little to nothing re: Lotto's character.
allidone's review against another edition
1.0
Oh the disappointment...
I will not say that this novel was not beautifully written. Beautifully written with all the pretense of someone attempting to pen the great American novel of our time.
The characters were... unlikeable at best. Throughout Lotto's story you long to learn more of Mathilde, because anyone else has to be better than pretentious and annoying Lotto. Lotto who espouses quotes of literature as if it's a normal thing and he does so unironically, so that you know he takes himself much too seriously.
Then you get to the Mathilde chapters and you long to go back the reading Lotto. Mathilde is horrible, and it's horrible to be in her head. She is a sociopath who had one of the more fucked up childhoods I've ever read. She becomes a 'kept woman' who is little more than a whore for the entirety of her 4 years at college. She lets her husband rewrite her/their history in order to hide from him, in order to hide everything from him. She hides so much from him that he barely knows her at all... but what do you expect when you get married after a mere 2 weeks of not just dating but even knowing the other person.
The things she doesn't tell him... the fact that she was born and raised in France, basically murdered her baby brother when she was 4 and he was 1, that she slept in a closet for years while her grandmother had sex in the room, that her uncle was her guardian and she barely saw him and he was some sort of art thief, that he worked either for or with the mob, that in order to pay for college she had sex with a man 13 years her senior. That she wasn't a virgin when they first got together, but played off her period like she was. That her name wasn't Mathilde at all. That she was basically an awful person. Not that I judge for abortions and if you don't want children, whatever, get steralized, don't have them, it's your choice. The problem I have with her decision is she allowed her husband to think, for decades after, that the possibility of babies was still there when he longed to be a father. Tell him the truth or tell him you're barren, but don't let him long for it and think that he may one day get his wish, because that's just cruel. Reading her I longed to read someone else, to be in someone else's head.
I stuck it out in this book because throughout Lotto I kept expecting it to be better. To Lotto to be redeemed by something, to grow up. Then, when it became clear that he wasn't going to be any better, I waited for Mathilde's story and her POV. When that happened I was hopeful at first, but she turned out to be just as awful, if not worse, than Lotto. Then I waited to see if she could be redeemed. She could not.
I didn't like this novel, but the language used in it was near hypnotic in it's descriptiveness. I may try another of Groff's novels, but I'm going to have to wait a long time before I recover from the disappointment of this one.
I will not say that this novel was not beautifully written. Beautifully written with all the pretense of someone attempting to pen the great American novel of our time.
The characters were... unlikeable at best. Throughout Lotto's story you long to learn more of Mathilde, because anyone else has to be better than pretentious and annoying Lotto. Lotto who espouses quotes of literature as if it's a normal thing and he does so unironically, so that you know he takes himself much too seriously.
Spoiler
Who is desperate to be loved and adored by anyone and everyone. Who is so utterly dependent upon his wife it's pathetic, but he doesn't really see or understand what his wife does. She takes care of him. She makes all the arrangements for everything, and like most men, he does not know how to do anything on his own. He's clearly a bipolar that someone failed to diagnose, with all his "love me love me" and partying interspersed with him imagining all the ways to kill himself. He is beyond narcissistic and self involved. He believes himself beautiful and a genius and is surprised whenever he sees himself in the mirror and has to admit he's not beautiful.Then you get to the Mathilde chapters and you long to go back the reading Lotto. Mathilde is horrible, and it's horrible to be in her head. She is a sociopath who had one of the more fucked up childhoods I've ever read. She becomes a 'kept woman' who is little more than a whore for the entirety of her 4 years at college. She lets her husband rewrite her/their history in order to hide from him, in order to hide everything from him. She hides so much from him that he barely knows her at all... but what do you expect when you get married after a mere 2 weeks of not just dating but even knowing the other person.
The things she doesn't tell him... the fact that she was born and raised in France, basically murdered her baby brother when she was 4 and he was 1, that she slept in a closet for years while her grandmother had sex in the room, that her uncle was her guardian and she barely saw him and he was some sort of art thief, that he worked either for or with the mob, that in order to pay for college she had sex with a man 13 years her senior. That she wasn't a virgin when they first got together, but played off her period like she was. That her name wasn't Mathilde at all. That she was basically an awful person. Not that I judge for abortions and if you don't want children, whatever, get steralized, don't have them, it's your choice. The problem I have with her decision is she allowed her husband to think, for decades after, that the possibility of babies was still there when he longed to be a father. Tell him the truth or tell him you're barren, but don't let him long for it and think that he may one day get his wish, because that's just cruel. Reading her I longed to read someone else, to be in someone else's head.
I stuck it out in this book because throughout Lotto I kept expecting it to be better. To Lotto to be redeemed by something, to grow up. Then, when it became clear that he wasn't going to be any better, I waited for Mathilde's story and her POV. When that happened I was hopeful at first, but she turned out to be just as awful, if not worse, than Lotto. Then I waited to see if she could be redeemed. She could not.
I didn't like this novel, but the language used in it was near hypnotic in it's descriptiveness. I may try another of Groff's novels, but I'm going to have to wait a long time before I recover from the disappointment of this one.
jeshuart's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5