Lauren Groff: Fates and Furies (2015)

[jserraglio]

Lauren Groff: Fates and Furies (2015)

Two takes, masculin féminin, on the same marriage, as in Fleishman Is in Trouble.

I found the balanced New Yorker review by James Wood to be helpful in guiding my reading of this novel, but be warned, it contains extensive spoilers: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015 ... james-wood

I do disagree with Wood's negative assessment of the "Furies" section of the novel that focuses on wife Mathilde's take on her marriage and startling revelations about her girlhood and her relations with a New Yorker by the name of Ariel. I thought this was hands down better than husband Lotto's story in the "Fates" section. You get a totally new voice there that apparently violates Woods's expectations, expectations that I would say--with the greatest respect for Wood whose writing I admire--seem shaped to a large extent by his gender.

3/28: Just finished Part II, "Furies" and the novel. Mathilde's story: Wood found it weak. I thought it was the strongest part of the novel, gorgeously written and very moving.
I plan to read all of Ms. Groff's novels now.