“The fact that these are all Florida stories comes out of the fact that I feel ambivalent or unsettled about the place where I live,” she said. Florida brings together eleven stories written over the course of the dozen years Groff lived in the state, but she never intended to pay homage. Still, the author, whose works include the Obama favorite Fates and Furies and the acclaimed collection Delicate Edible Birds, named her new book after this unchosen habitat. We find out all the secrets.“I still wouldn’t choose Florida as my home state, but I’m glad it chose me,” Lauren Groff replied when I asked why she had chosen to live on the peninsula full of snakes and rains, marshes and forest. Fates shows progress in terms of Lotto’s professional accomplishments and in terms of financial achievement while in Furies, we find out the machinations that happened behind the scenes. I found both parts of the book interesting, but Furies was more compelling to me. Or perhaps it’s simply that I’ve read the books one after the other. It’s interesting how this same theme of lightness versus heaviness show up here as well as in Kundera’s Lightness of Being. Lotto loves to be in front of the crowd, while Mathilde works invisibly in the shadows, behind the scenes. Lotto’s lack of self-awareness, his light nature is in contrast to Mathilde’s more weighty nature. Groff deftly explores the concept of fact versus perception.
I found the characters interesting, if not likeable. Secrets, though, have a way of revealing themselves or of being exposed. In all that time, Mathilde holds her background and secrets close. They remain married for 23 years, a life carefully built on routine and love. Each of them cannot contemplate life without the other and are fearful that their partner will leave them. Mathilde has shed her past and build a life with Lotto. While Lotto accepts life events as fate and evidence of his genius, Mathilde is quietly, secretly paving the path for him. She chooses Lotto, actively decides to stay with him each time she considers a different choice. In Mathilde’s case, an early choice/mistake shapes the arc of her life, but we see her wrest back control. Lotto’s charisma eventually helped him develop friendships by Mathilde struggled to do so she was more effective at getting people to fear her.įor Lotto, elements of his path are set when his father dies and his mother moves the family. They both grow up lonely, without the comfort of family. Mathilde was cast out of her family and Lotto was sent off to boarding school. This is a story about (different types of) love, family, marriage, secrets. There is also an omniscient voice that speaks in square brackets.
In the first part of the book, the story is from Lotto’s perspective in the second part from Mathilde’s. After a whirlwind affair, they get married.
Lotto and Mathilde meet one night at a party while attending Vassar. Fates and Furies is a book by Lauren Groff in two parts.
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