Fates & Furies is a chaotic and disturbing love story. There’s so much in the past of Lotto and Mathilde that drive their characters. Because of their traumas they go on dark journeys to discover themselves.
The Fates:
While I’m not familiar with greek mythology and theater, I am familiar with artists who are very self involved. I understand Lotto’s struggles in the beginning. His father dies, he has sex for the first time, and his mother drives the girl away. He doesn’t even know she’s alive or that he has child out there somewhere. Then he goes to boarding school where he’s bullied and then essentially raped by his theater teacher.
As an adult he gets very involved with himself, somewhat struggling with his sexuality. In college he’s with a new girl every week it seems. Until he meets Mathilde during his final year. And finding someone to care for him, unlike his mother, he decides to marry her immediately. And of course his mother disapproves.
He’s always the center of attention, which he seems to love since that’s how he started out as a baby being adored by his family. Finally he has somehow earned that adoration again. When he goes off to a writing community and stays for months on end, he draws towards a young pianist who is obsessed with him. He thrives off of being the center of attention, even though the young artist kills himself by walking into a blizzard due to Lotto’s rejection.
However, his self obsession is what truly ends his life. After discovering his wife Mathilde has cheated on him briefly he kills himself. He does not know the whole story, but he does build up a story in his artistic mind, drinks a bottle of vodka, and walks into the ocean to die.
The Furies:
Mathilde is another female character type that I personally enjoy reading about. She’s a child murderer! She doesn’t help her baby brother as he crawls and tumbles down the stairs of her aunt’s house to his death. With her parents disowning her, she goes on to live in her creepy uncle’s mansion. He doesn’t care about her, and then she goes on to college. She then becomes an OG sugar baby. The man gives her money solely for being naked around his home. It pays for her college, but she’s stuck in a life where she can’t be involved in relationships or friendships with anyone else. Until she comes up with a plan to seduce Lotto, which leads to their marriage and cuts ties with her sugar daddy.
Mathilde is the one who builds up Lotto’s writing success. She edits, changing things for him, making him think it was his own idea. She’s manipulative, but out of her own caring place.
While I believe she truly loves Lotto, she’s still extremely unhappy. After Lotto kills himself, she goes on to have relations with younger men as she grows older, yet still beautiful. She goes on to find Lotto’s son, who tries to sleep with her, but never leads to anything except her seeing another glimpse of her dead lover.
For this book, I’ve paired chapagne, vodka, and lemon juice to create a poor man’s bougie lemon drop. Just choose the cheapest champagne, such as Cooks, and a cheap vodka that makes you feel like you are a poor artist living in a basement. You will also need the juice of half a lemon.
Pour 1 oz of vodka into a champagne flute, or any other glass you have on hand, then squeeze in half lemon. Top the whole thing off with champagne and pretend you’re writing the best manuscript of your life. But you probably aren’t.
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