Fates and furies

''There was an enormous crack in the world.''

What constitutes a successful union between two people who love each other? The ability to have the courage to mend the cracks that appear in an alarming speed as the years go by. Now, in the marriage of Lotto and Mathilde, the cracks are there from the beginning. Especially in Lotto and all they have to do is to ignore them and move on. But Groff's novel is completely devoid of cracks or any other fault for that matter. In fact, it is plain and simple, one of the most interesting, daring and honest books I've ever had the pleasure to read.

I chose to read this novel, guided by the raving reviews of many beloved friends here, in Goodreads, and attracted by the claim that Groff had been inspired by Ancient Greek Tragedy. I was surprised to see that this is not just a very well-written love story, but also an immensely beautiful trip down the historical changes that New York and its society underwent from the early 90s all the way through our troubled present. To do so through the eyes of a squad of artists, in all their vanity and sensitivity, was satisfying and, frankly, hugely entertaining.

Groff touches upon so many subjects, one wouldn't know where to begin. The way I see it, the main themes are love and aspirations. We witness a relationship that starts in a rather unorthodox way. Lotto and Mathilde get married out of the blue and then, they have to learn how to live together, how to fight the daily problems, how to know each other and come to understand themselves in the process. Their relationship is presented in such a beautiful way that even a sworn enemy of marriage (such as myself) has to take a step back and contemplate for a while.

However, in my opinion, the notion that lies at the heart of the story is the way our aspirations influence our course in life once they are fulfilled or-worse- once we realise that they have become dreams of a past that is slowly fading away...Groff's writing took me back to the time when I was studying, when me and my friends thought that we would be able to change the world once we graduate from university. Instead, we slowly found out that the world actually changed us. Worries about our families, our work, our financial status, our relationships with our loved ones, all those things that make you feel you have entered the universe of the adults and their responsibilities.

Lotto, in particular, changes route and tries to fulfill his ambitions from a different starting point. And he succeeds. Mathilde? She remains the steady rock that binds him to the present and holds their life together. There comes my only problem with the novel. Mathilde makes the decision to stop working after Lotto's success -which took a long time to take place- and becomes the wife who cleans, cooks, etc. Perhaps, she didn't want to follow her dreams, after all. Perhaps,she found fulfillment through the role of the lady of the house, perhaps she needed to cast away her own demons of the past. I don't know and I don't judge her. I respect it, but I don't understand it, and it was at that time when I felt that the book was too centered to Lotto and his actions. This was too harsh of me, but I couldn't have foreseen the great bomb that exploded and shuttered everything to pieces...

What can I say about Groff's writing? I'm going to resort to clichés, but I cannot help it. The language she uses is so powerful, so immediate, so creative. The style is unique, a third-person narration, with some slight but intricately woven hints of stream of consciousness. The dialogue is sharp, without unnecessary words, the pace leaves you breathless in a story that spans over twenty years, centered on two people. I enjoyed the New York colloquialisms and the fact that I could see and feel the changing city over the years, changes that were depicted in the characters and their interactions.

What is the most fascinating element in this novel? For me, it is the title. Fates and Furies... Why Fates? Why Furies? It had me wondering. The notion of Fate lies at the centre of the Greek tragedies, the three women who controlled and, eventually, cut the thread of all mortals' lives, the Moirai : Clotho, Atropos and Lachesis. The Furies, the Erinyes, were wild, winged female deities. Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone. They hunted and haunted the wrongdoers without mercy, for the rest of their lives. Orestes is the well-known example, punished for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra. So, Fates and Furies are our daily escorts, from the moment we are born until the day we depart from this world. They are the two sides of the same coin and Groff uses them in such a successful way that would make Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus proud...

I was reading this book while I was commuting to work and back. There were instances when it almost slipped off my hands out of sheer shock, others because of my anger caused by certain stupid decisions of the couple. I don't know how can anyone read this novel and feel absolutely nothing. I think it's impossible. One cannot remain indifferent in front of life and Lauren Groff takes life's notions, twists them and awakes every bit and every kind of emotion to the reader. It is a book that speaks with a voice of anger, despair and hope, and we feel compelled to listen...Carefully...