UK Publishing Date: 17th Sept 2015. 400 pages.
When I finished reading this book I jotted down a few thoughts on a page and realised that they were almost exclusively negative. So I had a quite scan over some other reviews and I was quite surprised that so many people had given Fates and Furies such a high rating.
I found it quite a difficult book to get through. Lotto and Mathilde aren’t the easiest couple to have any empathy for. At the end of the 400 pages I feel like I’ve had quite a cold analytical look at their marriage. For me the story was lacking in warmth and joy.
It has a promising start when Lotto and his new wife are frolicking on the beach having just eloped. From there the book just feels quite clinical as you go through the whistle-stop tour of Lancelot’s past and his promiscuity and the marriage as it progresses.
Thinking back through the story I realise that I didn’t actually like any of the characters in it at all. The extended family and their friends are all just as bad as the main protagonists. Lotto’s mother was just such an odd character that I don’t really know where to start with her. She clearly had mental health issues.
I had an odd realisation when I was about half way through that it felt like a modern day version of a Henry James novel. Kind of says it all for me I’m afraid.Just not my cup of tea! It is a very literary style of writing that will alienate the casual reader.
Supplied by Net Galley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
You can get the book here: Fates and Furies
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