3/5 stars
What's it about? The novel follows Lotto and Mathilde, a couple who marries young and impulsively, and explores intimacy, performance, and the experiences that shape us as individuals and partners. We view the relationship from each perspective, allowing the reader to revisit scenes with new information (usually one of Mathilde's many secrets).
How’d I find it? A mystery. I came to Lauren Groff through Florida and hearing her speak at AWP, and somehow acquired Fates and Furies in the intervening years.
Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Ann Patchett's The Dutch House (for the chapters covering Lotto's side) and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (for Mathilde's), readers who enjoy relationship dramas with split perspectives (like An American Marriage by Tayari Jones)
What stood out? Come for the language! It's Lauren Groff, so the writing is candied with deliciousness and rippled with humor (see "Which line made me feel something?" below). The bracketed asides from an omniscient narrator offer lovely nuggets of wit and context. I also marveled at the excerpts from Lotto's plays within the novel and how deftly Groff inhabited her characters' creative spaces. I struggled with the thumbprint of misogyny in the novel; even when acknowledged, the treatment of women (both how they're treated and written) felt somewhat icky. It's perhaps for this reason that I found few of the characters or sex scenes believable.
Which line made me feel something? "She stretched her long arms over her head, and there were little nests of winter hair in the pits. She could hatch baby robins in those things."