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Book Summary and Reviews of Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Fates and Furies

by Lauren Groff

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  • Sep 2015, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia, an exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art, and perception.

Fates and Furies is a literary masterpiece that defies expectation. A dazzling examination of a marriage, it is also a portrait of creative partnership written by one of the best writers of her generation. 

Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.

At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. With stunning revelations and multiple threads, and in prose that is vibrantly alive and original, Groff delivers a deeply satisfying novel about love, art, creativity, and power that is unlike anything that has come before it. Profound, surprising, propulsive, and emotionally riveting, it stirs both the mind and the heart.

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Book Awards

  • award image Indie Booksellers’ Choice Awards, 2016

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. The plotting is exquisite, and the sentences hum; Groff writes with a pleasurable, bantering vividness. An intricate plot, perfect title, and a harrowing look at the tie that binds." – Kirkus

"Starred Review. Like a classic tragedy, Groff's novel offers high drama, hubris, and epic love, complete with Greek chorus–like asides. A singular and compelling literary read, populated with extraordinary characters; highly recommended." – Library Journal

"Starred Review. Taking a page from Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl–like view of marriage, Groff fashions a searing, multilayered portrait of a union that seems to thrive on its darkest secrets." - Booklist

"There are moments when the writing feels self-indulgent, but, for the most part, it's an intoxicating elixir. Perhaps Groff herself says it best: "It was less a story than a great creature surfacing from the deep; it was more sudden audible wave than narrative." - Publishers Weekly

"With Fates and Furies Lauren Groff goes many levels below the surface of a marriage, into a place that is perhaps as hard to reach as it is to describe, but Groff, a bold and marvelous writer, is able to do both." – Meg Wolitzer, New York Times-bestselling author of The Interestings

This information about Fates and Furies was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cathryn Conroy

If I Could Give It 10 Stars, I Would
If I could give this book 10 stars, I would! But do know this is not an easy, on-the-beach type read. This is an intelligent book--literary fiction at its finest. The story by Lauren Groff, which is a behind-closed-doors look at the marriage of Lancelot (Lotto) and Mathilde Satterwhite, is told in two parts.

The first half of the book, titled "Fates," is the marriage as viewed through Lotto's eyes. The second half of the book, "Furies," is from Mathilde's point of view. And it leaves the reader thinking: "Wait! This is the SAME marriage?" Which, of course, makes you wonder if all marriages are like this? Do we ever really know one another even after decades of marital bliss?

This is ultimately the story of how Mathilde engineered their marriage to appear to be perfect--not so much to the outside world but to Lotto. What seemed like such a sweet romantic story in "Fates" becomes a chilling, dark and creepy tale in "Furies." Pay attention to things that happen in "Fates," even if they seem unimportant because there are many revelations in "Furies" that will send you back to those early pages. You'll think, "Aha! So that's what really happened!"

I highly recommend this book.

Janis H.

A Worthy Undertaking
Complaints surrounding this book baffle me. I am rating it a 5 because I had to round up to a whole number. If I could have, I would have given it a 4.9 because of the transition to one particular death scene. Some people quit after Chapter 2. At that point, however, I realized that rather than speed reading through this book I would absorb its many levels. It is definitely not an anti marriage book as some have written. For me it is a study of an intelligent and damaged woman in love with her well respected and imperfect husband. it is difficult for me to write about this book without hinting at spoilers for future readers. It took me several chapters to understand Lancelot (Lotto) is the epitome of the golden boy, the one on whom Fate has bestowed a perfect life and on whom Fate gave him the woman who would insure that life would continue through any measure possible. The second half of the book Furies is more compelling than the first, at least for me. I loved the way Lauren Groff told the two stories through different perspectives, which prevented the second part of the book from becoming a retelling of the first. Be aware future readers there aren't really any nice people in the story with the exception of Lotto's aunt and sister. Stay with it because it will stay with you for weeks after you finish it. At least it did for me.

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Author Information

Lauren Groff Author Biography

Photo: Lucy Schaeffer

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds, and the celebrated short story collections Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies' Choice Award, France's Grand Prix de l'Héroïne, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Author Interview
Link to Lauren Groff's Website

Name Pronunciation
Lauren Groff: "Groff" rhymes with "off."

Other books by Lauren Groff at BookBrowse
  • The Monsters of Templeton jacket
  • Matrix jacket

6 more...

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