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booksandlists's review
I think I just picked this up at a bad time - I wasn’t looking for something serious, so this book wasn’t what I needed.
j_m_alexander's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
A story of a marriage, two individuals, and how much we know those we love most.
[He knew her; the things he didn’t know about her would sink an ocean liner; he knew her.]
...but also a book about art and power and sex and death and rage.
“[Grief is for the strong, who use it as fuel for burning.]”
This book has been around for a while now (2015, so 9 years at the time of my reading - that's a while) and I feel like everyone has read it, it's reached the level of just being somewhat in the cultural atmosphere, yet somehow I was still so surprised by this book - continuously, I don't think I ever really figured out where it was going before it delivered me to the next destination. I know Groff is a masterful writer on a sentence level (I loved Matrix), I knew the basic setup/plot and also that this book does some interesting things with form, but all of that said I still found myself constantly surprised. Groff sets the tone for half of the book by focusing on one perspective within the marriage, but once you get to the Furies section, it's an immediate revelatory shift and destruction of the heretofore basically linear form, that makes you think about every single thing you thought you knew and had read for the first 200 pages or so. This is the kind of thing that could seem gimmicky if the story, characters, and writing were not great, but what have I been saying? It is!
“Paradox of marriage: you can never know someone entirely; you do know someone entirely.”
I can imagine there would be people that might find the first half a bit of a slog, but I found Groff's writing to be engaging enough to read the fairly linear story of a man (Lotto) and his marriage, plus you are lulled into liking the characters even through shitty, thoughtless, and self-centered behavior. I would tell those that find it to be dragging in the beginning to hang with it, it'll be SOO worth it, because Mathilde is the far more interesting character, far more grey, far more biting, far more dynamic, and everything she shares adds layers to what your learned from her husband.
“Please. Marriage is made of lies. Kind ones, mostly. Omissions. If you give voice to the things you think every day about your spouse, you’d crush them to paste. She never lied. Just never said.”
This is two for two for me with Groff. So far my take is that she writes stories that are darkly shaded with wry humor, but also contain plenty of beauty and strength. My thanks to the Fates for measuring my particular thread out long enough to allow some reading of Groff!
[He knew her; the things he didn’t know about her would sink an ocean liner; he knew her.]
...but also a book about art and power and sex and death and rage.
“[Grief is for the strong, who use it as fuel for burning.]”
This book has been around for a while now (2015, so 9 years at the time of my reading - that's a while) and I feel like everyone has read it, it's reached the level of just being somewhat in the cultural atmosphere, yet somehow I was still so surprised by this book - continuously, I don't think I ever really figured out where it was going before it delivered me to the next destination. I know Groff is a masterful writer on a sentence level (I loved Matrix), I knew the basic setup/plot and also that this book does some interesting things with form, but all of that said I still found myself constantly surprised. Groff sets the tone for half of the book by focusing on one perspective within the marriage, but once you get to the Furies section, it's an immediate revelatory shift and destruction of the heretofore basically linear form, that makes you think about every single thing you thought you knew and had read for the first 200 pages or so. This is the kind of thing that could seem gimmicky if the story, characters, and writing were not great, but what have I been saying? It is!
“Paradox of marriage: you can never know someone entirely; you do know someone entirely.”
I can imagine there would be people that might find the first half a bit of a slog, but I found Groff's writing to be engaging enough to read the fairly linear story of a man (Lotto) and his marriage, plus you are lulled into liking the characters even through shitty, thoughtless, and self-centered behavior. I would tell those that find it to be dragging in the beginning to hang with it, it'll be SOO worth it, because Mathilde is the far more interesting character, far more grey, far more biting, far more dynamic, and everything she shares adds layers to what your learned from her husband.
“Please. Marriage is made of lies. Kind ones, mostly. Omissions. If you give voice to the things you think every day about your spouse, you’d crush them to paste. She never lied. Just never said.”
This is two for two for me with Groff. So far my take is that she writes stories that are darkly shaded with wry humor, but also contain plenty of beauty and strength. My thanks to the Fates for measuring my particular thread out long enough to allow some reading of Groff!
mtro's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
macwar's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
hikeplayski's review against another edition
4.0
I was so pulled in by the woven language and complex characters leading common lives with great depth and mystery.
geri_reader's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
tildahlia's review against another edition
3.0
I was both impressed and underwhelmed by this book. I think Groff is a fantastic writer, but the first half just had me bored and impatient with the dudebro Lotto character. The second half (Mathilde's story) was significantly more compelling, albeit with recourse to a bit of high drama and implausibility. That said, she wrote sex scenes well (I'll never think of the word 'shucked' the same way again), which always gets points with me. Probably a 3.5.
lindsayaunderwood's review against another edition
3.0
I liked a lot about this book. Some very interesting twists and turns. A few gripes: some of the plot points I didn't understand/didn't believe. I needed more explanation for some of the characters', particularly Mathilde's, choices. I also wish the book itself would have been a little more straightforward. The second half, Furies, had so much flourish and time disconnect that I had to go back to figure out what I'd just read. Overall, interesting theme of never quite knowing someone...
rossgr's review against another edition
4.0
Halfway through this book, I was already thinking of writing this review with the opening line of "I appreciated the story telling, but I could not get past the way women are described - which I found flat, overly simplified and extremely male-gazey" until I turned the page into the second half of the book that switches over to the woman's perspective and that's when you realize the brilliance of Groff's writing, and that you were supposed to feel underwhelmed by Lotto's (lead male character's) perception of her so when you switch to her perspective and see how complicated and intelligent she is, you have a "ohhhhhhh ok now it's going to get good" moment. I loved so many things about this book, especially how amidst all the life events experienced quite differently between the two characters and their own complicated pasts, their love remains so strong and true. A great great love story and so fun and surprising to read - we love Lotto, but make it through the first half if you feel like it's a slow start because it gets so so good!