A review by jazzypizzaz
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
4.0
I love the storytelling structure of this book and how it revealed certain truths about the characters in unexpected ways. Relationships are about separate people coming together to share themselves with each other, but there will still remain large "white spaces" of each that remain hidden, perhaps even to the individual. Upon finishing the book I immediately wanted to read through the book again, putting each vignette in chronological order to join the two halves for a "complete" story; of course it would not have been effective in its narrative if it was like this to begin with.
I did find myself rolling my eyes often at the wiring style in the first half, but Furies made me realize that this was intentional. Lotto is perhaps a genius, good-hearted and sometimes quite insightful. However he also lives his life "fated" for greatness and knows this deep down; this is reflected in the writing style, which is at times pretentious fluff, self-important in its own grasping for the illusion of greatness. (There's a point where he wants to ride her collar bone like a cowboy homunculus or something--what the hell.)
Or maybe I just missed out on Lotto's enchantment and charm, needing Mathilde's bitterness and anger to appreciate him. I found the second half far more interesting, and I felt like I understood Mathilde innately (without rolling my eyes at her particular brand of strangeness).
One last thing is I wish I had greater background knowledge of classics (Greek plays and mythology, etc) to glean the full meaning of the references (and possibly the storytelling structure?).
I did find myself rolling my eyes often at the wiring style in the first half, but Furies made me realize that this was intentional. Lotto is perhaps a genius, good-hearted and sometimes quite insightful. However he also lives his life "fated" for greatness and knows this deep down; this is reflected in the writing style, which is at times pretentious fluff, self-important in its own grasping for the illusion of greatness. (There's a point where he wants to ride her collar bone like a cowboy homunculus or something--what the hell.)
Or maybe I just missed out on Lotto's enchantment and charm, needing Mathilde's bitterness and anger to appreciate him. I found the second half far more interesting, and I felt like I understood Mathilde innately (without rolling my eyes at her particular brand of strangeness).
One last thing is I wish I had greater background knowledge of classics (Greek plays and mythology, etc) to glean the full meaning of the references (and possibly the storytelling structure?).