Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (2015)

Two people in a life-long marriage, told from the perspective of each, to try to make a whole of the story.

Book Review: Fates and Furies was all the rage about a year ago, compared to Gone Girl, enjoyed by President Obama, reviewed everywhere. I'm a little late, waiting to read it after it came out in paperback, but still glad I did because there is so much to say. I've seen some comments about it as a commentary on marriage, but it's not, it's a commentary on a marriage. And an unlikely one at that. Fates and Furies didn't even feel like a book about a marriage, but about two people that somehow got married. The comparison to Gone Girl is inapposite and meaningless -- the only similarity is that the first half of the book is told from the husband's point of view and the second half from the wife's. But because of the chatter I was somewhat misled: don't trust the hype, it's a red herring. The story is of two "unlikeable" people (I liked both) who marry relatively young, are opposites, idealize each other and try to make it succeed. The couple fit together intricately, as do their satellites of family and friends. The husband is charismatic, larger than life, born wealthy, just wants to be loved and is, struggles as an actor, but loves to work and will never stop his attempts. The wife, born poor, is withdrawn, distant with hidden depths, whose interior life is richly and definitively drawn by Lauren Groff. The writing in Fates and Furies is the first thing I noticed. It's detailed, intricate, angular, unusual, but striking. The author worked long and hard over her sentences and it shows; there are incredible passages worth the price of the book. It took some getting used to, sometimes I had to go back and re-read a section, sometimes there were new words, but the sentences are brilliant and worth the effort. She sees all and deep with her ice pick words. Fates and Furies is a literary novel, with numerous literary references for the literature majors, but doesn't detract for everyone else, and it's a compelling read. What's worthwhile here is that Groff threw everything into this book, she aimed high, made a diligent concerted effort to write something great, and almost did. Very, very good, but not great. Not quite good enough, not a failure, not as brilliant as it often seemed. I can't fault her for that. The effort shows and the wonderful writing glows. She didn't miss by much. I want to read her previous, Arcadia, and Groff has the ability to make her next a classic. What didn't work was some pandering to correctness for no apparent reason, some overly sensational plot points to conform to current trends, characters so far from the norm as to seem unreal -- these are not people I'll ever read about except in fiction. I'll never meet Gatsby, yet somehow that book seemed more believable. But I like the comparison to Fitzgerald, and would love to see Groff tone it down just a little and write something more of the world. I think she can write deep within reality, and make it sensational. [4★]