In the second half, Furies, we get Mathilde’s story. Suddenly, halfway through the novel, the perspective changes. Their marriage baffles their friends: Surely the outgoing, lovable Lotto and the cold, reserved Mathilde won’t last more than a year. Lotto meets Mathilde shortly before college graduation, and weeks later the two are married. The first half, Fates, tells the story from the perspective of Lotto, a narcissistic yet good-natured playwright to whom fate has been unusually kind (ostensibly). The story, about a married couple, is divided into two halves. Still, I stuck with it, having the feeling that I would be rewarded for my patience. At times, her similes and word choices are pretentious to the point of eye rolls. Lauren Groff’s writing style takes some getting used to: she jumps around in time quite a bit, and often thrusts the reader into a scene abruptly so that it takes a few paragraphs to find one’s bearings. It took me a long time to get into this one. It’s a complete, fulfilling story with remarkable beauty and depth if you’re willing to endure Groff’s ostentatious prose. It’s about life, and what matters most within it: family, love, community. He falls in love, experiences life-altering tragedy, has a child of his own and ultimately finds himself returning to the commune years later, as if it were part of his destiny.Īrcadia is about a utopian dream-at its best, its worst and everything in between. It follows him from childhood through adulthood, as he is eventually forced to assimilate in the outside world. With Arcadia, my emotions didn’t reach such extremes, but my experience was the exact opposite: I enjoyed the second half much more than the first half.Īrcadia presents us with the life of Bit, born in an idyllic commune in the middle of the woods in the 1970s.

With Fates and Fu ries, I loathed the first half and loved the second half. I went back and forth between feeling like this book was a total slog and finding it utterly compelling. What does it mean for a girl to have a “sweet cupcake face” anyway? Your writing is actually quite beautiful, but that isn’t good enough for you, apparently.

Arcadia lauren groff book review