So I heard about Fates & Furies at the end of the year when President Obama announced it as his favorite book of the year and the premise seemed interesting. However, it seems, President Obama and I have differing opinions…
The novel is a decades long narrative of Lancelot (Lotto) and Mathide Satterwhite’s marriage, beginning with the courtship of Lotto’s parents and ending only when both Lotto and Mathide have died. It’s pretentious and full of unbelievable (in the literal sense) dialogue & character actions. Lotto was insufferable; one of those “Golden Boy” types that everyone who comes across him worships but as the reader you just want to slap him in the face. Mathide got interesting during the second half of the book, Furies, when her past was more fleshed out but it just made me angry that the more compelling person in the relationship was relegated to the background of most of their marriage.
The first strike against Fates & Furies was that I mistakenly put my name on the wait list for the audio-book and not the hardcover at my local library. I considered waiting but decided to give the audio-book a try which was a mistake. It was too bizarre and uncomfortable an experience to hear a strange man narrate so many sex scenes on my way to work over the last few weeks…
Mostly though, it was the overly flowery language that just went on and on; constant descriptions of Lotto’s acne, how gross Chollie is, how people smelled etc. Oh, and Lotto’s plays, oh God, if I had been reading this I would have glossed over all of those, I’m lucky I didn’t crash my car from rolling my eyes so hard.
I would skip over this one unless you like reading overwrought descriptions of horrible people and their going-ons.