Fates and Furies tells the story of a marriage using two different points of view but it is not a typical he said/she said. Instead a rather erudite narrator starts out giving us a story that mostly follows the perspective the husband Lancelot “Lotto” Satterwhite in the first part and in the second part shifts to gives us a view of things from the perspective of his put-upon wife Mathilde. Whatever their difficulties, the two have an intense sexual connection and are often the envy of their friends. This is an ambitious and much-lauded book and was recommended everywhere and famous folks mentioned in interviews about what they’re reading.
Heir to a bottled water fortune and a ladies man, Lotto, falls for Mathilde immediately and marries her in less than a month. As is the case with most things, Lotto thinks it is all his own doing and can congratulate himself without considering how so many things in his life happened because someone else acted behind the scenes. Speaking of acting…Lotto is a not-so-great actor and considers his wife to be a saint because she manages their household on a shoestring budget and puts up with all of his excesses. It isn’t until he tries his hand at writing plays and Mathilde recognizes his talent and encourages him that he finds the success and adulation he was raised to believe he deserved. And his wife’s hand is even in that because she edits his plays (sometimes while he sleeps). When he awakes, he assumes the work is entirely his own. [Sidenote: There is a really great novel where a wife writes every word of her award-wining husband’s books but because this is the book’s big reveal, I won’t give the title here but if you see me, ask me about it.]
When you get to the second section, you find out more about Mathilde and get a different view of this marriage. Throughout the book, Mathilde is described as either being wonderful looking or of having “interesting” features that she makes the most of. (Lotto is at times also given these opposing descriptions but overall he has more charm and is a man so people have a higher opinion of him.) Mathilde is in some instances a better person than you’ve imagined and in other instances she is more cruel than you would have ever guessed. Mathilde had a difficult childhood, although she is not entirely a victim of the adults in her life. But being unmoored as a child means that she remains adrift as a young adult. Lotto thinks he found a home in her and she sacrifices to make him feel that way. He doesn’t know how much she needed stability because he never bothers to learn about who she is.
Lotto is accustomed to being spoiled by the women in his life–his aunt and sister and even his estranged mother. Lotto’s mother doesn’t even talk to him and her whole life still revolves around him.
Fates and Furies isn’t a mystery but there are some surprises when you get to the second part. I don’t know that it is a surprise that the relationship had dimensions that Lotto remained ignorant of but is is intriguing to see things differently when the narrator offers more of Mathilde’s life.
The book is epic and mythic in scope, as you can imagine from the title. The narrator serves as a kind of Greek chorus providing commentary in bracketed asides. There are also excerpts from Lotto’s plays. This is one of the books with words and classical references that I decided to look up, not because I couldn’t understand from context but because I just wanted to know. So it isn’t quite a beach read but it is engrossing. Some people have lauded this book while others have loathed it. Like its main characters, it is unique—beautiful to some, while others think it has “interesting” features that it dresses well.
