Fates and Furies

"She made a promise that she would never show him the evil that lived in her, that he would know of her only a great love and light." -fates and furies

How far do we go to hide our true selves? Where do we bury the darkness that lies within? And, how much will we bury to protect the ones we love?

Those are all central questions in this extraordinary work of fiction. So extraordinary, in fact, that I finished it a couple of hours ago and I know it won't do it justice to write about it here. The story itself is compelling, but that's not what makes this book so remarkable. The true feat here is how it's told.

Our story begins with a passionate encounter on the beach between a man and a woman. Their love is clear, their lust for each other even more so. And, immediately, you hear the foreshadowing of a story that will take them to places together and separately that no one expects them to go.

Part one is Fates and is the love story told from the man's perspective. Lotto - Lancelot - is born into money and sent away as a teenager for his own protection. His father is dead, his mother incapable of caring for him. So, he's off to prep school, then Vassar, then NYC. Despite missteps and failures and being cut off from his family's wealth, the sun seems to always shine on Lotto. He meets Mathilde in their last days of college and she's an enigma to Lotto and their friends. She doesn't speak about her past, says she has no family to speak of, and quietly becomes the force that drives Lotto's success. When he becomes a highly-regarded playwright, she's the one waiting in the wings (and more.) How does she stay with him? How is she so patient? And, how does she manage to live a life only for him?

We find out in Part 2.

Part 2, The Furies, is the love story from the other side. Mathilde's story. You see her past reveal itself, wave after dark wave. You see how she came to be the stoic wife that stands by her husband. You see the family that fell away. You see a woman primed for revenge against those who dare try to stand in the way of her husband's happiness. She wants to be for him something that no one has ever given to her. You see Lotto's story through her eyes and its depth is significantly magnified.

You've heard the basics of the story before. The woman behind the man, the complicated world of mothers and daughters-in-law..  There's Greek tragedy here as well. And there are surprises in the final chapters that left my mouth agape.

The Fates half of this book moves slowly at times, with long chapters and a lot of setup. It pays off in The Furies absolutely.

I've read Groff's writing before in her collection of short stories called Florida. It's soaring prose, yet somehow not overwritten. Even the secondary characters here are deep. I can't imagine how it must be to pull off a book like this, but I'm incredibly grateful that she did.