At the lowest moment of Lotto’s life, she cashes in every favor she has to turn his kernel of talent into what becomes a lifetime of success as a playwright. He sees in her goodness that she has not dared believe was part of her.
At one point, early in their marriage, friends ask Lotto and Matilde what marriage is like. He replies, “A never-ending banquet, and you eat and eat and never get full.” She adds, “Kipling called it a very long conversation.”
Both are apt for this portrait of a 24-year marriage. The book, which begins the day that Lotto and Matilde get married is written in two parts. The first, Fates, focuses on the charismatic Lotto’s charmed life as the first-born son of a wealthy Florida family, doted on by his possessively protective mother, loving Aunt Sallie and adoring younger sister Rachel.
The second, Furies, begins with Lotto’s death, when he and Matilde were both 42, and at the peak of a golden life. His death ignites rage in Matilde – rage that he could have left her, rage about emptiness of life without him, rage at the people who had hurt, insulted and rejected her in the past.
“Mathilde was not unfamiliar with grief. That old wolf had come sniffing around her house before.” But this time, she had the resources to fulfill her craving for revenge.
This is not a Hallmark, “she saw things this way; he saw things that way” novel. It is about a complex relationship between complex people. It has moments simultaneously comic and tragic, poignancy that takes your breath away and Matilde’s cathartic rage, worthy of the classic Greek tragedies.
The Author: Lauren Groff (1978- )
