![]() ![]() And why not? From the beginning, fate seems to look on him with benevolence. ![]() He’s the central character explicitly associated with fate and destiny, and as such he’s the more passive, the more accepting of the pair. Wordplay abounds in “Fates and Furies,” starting with Lotto’s name and its link to such chance-related activities as lotteries. The opening lines introduce us both to him and to his wife, Mathilde Yoder, but we are soon told: “For now, he’s the one we can’t look away from. The novel is divided into two sections, the first of which, “Fates,” is largely concerned with the husband, Lancelot (Lotto) Satterwhite, an unconventionally irresistible beacon of good will and good faith - and more than a bit of a narcissist. ![]() The title sets the tone for this project, while also serving as a road map of sorts. Yet “Fates and Furies,” Lauren Groff’s remarkable new novel, explodes and rages past any such preconceptions, insisting that the examination of a long-term relationship can be a perfect vehicle for exploring no less than the nature of existence - the domestic a doorway to the philosophical. A domestic union set prominently in a work of fiction has the sometimes unfortunate capacity to obscure whatever else is going on. There’s always the danger, with novels structured around a marriage, that they’ll be perceived as centrally concerned not only with that particular relationship but with the nature of marriage itself. ![]()
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