Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Summary of the Summary of the Summary:

An intriguing and twisting tale examining the duplicity of marriage.

Summary of the Summary:

Lauren Groff weaves a tale of marriage in two different parts: one from the husband's point of view that expels the wonders of fate making everything possible; and the other from the wife's, who understands how the world works and how to make it work for her. The first half drags a bit, creating an almost infuriating character who can't do wrong and everything works out for in the end. But then we begin the "Furies" section and everything we knew before is flipped on its head as we learn the seemingly true story behind it all. Reminiscent of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl,
but without the batshit-crazy psycho wife, and mysteries are less high-stakes. 

Summary: 

Reading Lauren Groff's marriage-exploring novel is an exercise in patience. I went into it knowing absolutely nothing about the story, and was a bit disappointed in the beginning as we learn all about the miraculous life of Lotto Satterwhite, a seemingly normal boy with a spoiled upbringing who has just enough talent to allow people to pander to him and support his dreams, but not enough to make anything of it. He is described as "golden" and of taking advantage of his status and just-good-enough looks. There are hints at his own duplicity, with stories from his childhood of hanging with the wrong friends and an odd encounter at boarding school, along with an encounter later in life that has him questioning everything he knows about himself; but Lotto denies this other self and continues on his way. 

Lotto's narrative isn't uninteresting, there just doesn't seem to be much stakes to it. Yes, there are times when he and his bride are broke and struggle to make ends meet, yes, there are moments he feels entirely down on his luck, but he always succeeds, seemingly out of thin air. Yes, he works towards this success, but not nearly enough to be worthy of what he achieves and the status bestowed upon him. From his point of view, he has an ideal marriage of trust, support, and fantastic sex, but his wife is portrayed as a perfect anomaly, the wife who has no feelings or ambitions of her own, but is only there to prop up her husband. 

But then the payoff for this sometimes grueling section comes in part two, when we hear a retelling of events, but from Lotto's wife, Mathilde's, point of view. Mathilde paints an entirely different picture of their marriage, one in which she's not only keeping them alive financially, but is the driving force behind all of Lotto's success. She understands who Lotto is, and caters to this idea to make him accomplished and praised. And yet she receives none of the credit. 

Further, while Lotto was mainly an open book (except for the aforementioned duplicity) Mathilde is a mysterious force with an untold past and enough secrets to fill Gretchen Wiener's hair. When her past is slowly revealed to the reader, her reasoning and motivations for her actions become more clear, recalling minor incidents from the first section of the book you may have forgotten. 

By the end, despite a fairly thorough history of Mathilde, she's still a somewhat unknown force. She becomes a more flushed out and developed character than the "yes dear" wife she was portrayed as in Lotto's section, but some things are still a mystery and left to speculation, which is almost refreshing as the author doesn't feel the need to spell everything out to the reader. 

One disappointing aspect to the ending is a twist that is fairly predictable. The seeds for it are planted very early on in the novel, but the reveal seems clunky and unnecessary towards the end. It was a reveal that any observant and speculative reader could have guessed, but it's so cliche it isn't rewarding when the guess is proven true. 

Overall, Groff's tale of a marriage both happy and manipulative is an interesting read that payoffs in the second half (though the first is entirely necessary to set the scene). Reminiscent of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl in its exploration of marriage and the fallacy of the perfect and doting wife, but without any murders or kidnappings or really any felonies at all (that I remember). There is still a dark side to Mathilde though, but one much more under-the-surface and slow burning than Amazing Amy's. For a mind-bending read that appears sweet at the start, but by will have you questioning how much we really know anyone, I would highly recommend.

Interested? Get it here. 

Happy Reading!

Disclosure: The Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase, Amazon sends a couple coins my way. It won't pay the bills, but it may help me purchase my next book to review. Thank you for your support!