Book Review - The Matrix - it's a book , not the movie

cover blurb:  she rides out of the forest alone, seventeen years old, in the cold march drizzle, marie who comes from France

1158 - a bedraggled Marie, banished from Queen Eleanor's court, is now in England at a much maligned abbey.  Poor, starving nuns. No resources. 

Matrix by Lauren Groff is a weird little book with a very old flavor to it. Spare and yet rich - this book is a "defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world." (cover blurb)

Marie is an ungainly giantess of her day, no beauty, yet cunning, smart, resourceful. She is strong-willed and soon learns to manipulate what she can to get food, secure the abbey, conquer diseases, and use her faith and visions to instill strength. This book is not long and Groff leaps through the years -covering plagues, blight, and salvation. 

p. 117 Without the first matrix (Eve, House of Death), there could be no salvatrix (Mary, House of Life), the greatest matrix of all. 

p.177 There is a fine polish of near morning upon the abbey....

p.226 Collapse is the constant state of humanity...civilization after civilization foundering to dust, until the final death of the children of Eve with the apocalypse, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven angels, the seven bowls. 

I liked Marie, the various nuns - some cranky, some wily, some mad, and the style of Matrix. I almost felt I should be reading it on dusty old parchment while drinking from a chalice. Kudos to Lauren Groff. 

Matrix (by Lauren Groff) - it's a book, not the movie

 

cover blurb:  she rides out of the forest alone, seventeen years old, in the cold march drizzle, marie who comes from France

1158 - a bedraggled Marie, banished from Queen Eleanor's court, is now in England at a much maligned abbey.  Poor, starving nuns. No resources. 

Matrix by Lauren Groff is a weird little book with a very old flavor to it. Spare and yet rich - this book is a "defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world." (cover blurb)

Marie is an ungainly giantess of her day, no beauty, yet cunning, smart, resourceful. She is strong-willed and soon learns to manipulate what she can to get food, secure the abbey, conquer diseases, and use her faith and visions to instill strength. This book is not long and Groff leaps through the years -covering plagues, blight, and salvation. 

p. 117 Without the first matrix (Eve, House of Death), there could be no salvatrix (Mary, House of Life), the greatest matrix of all. 

p.177 There is a fine polish of near morning upon the abbey....

p.226 Collapse is the constant state of humanity...civilization after civilization foundering to dust, until the final death of the children of Eve with the apocalypse, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven angels, the seven bowls. 

I liked Marie, the various nuns - some cranky, some wily, some mad, and the style of Matrix. I almost felt I should be reading it on dusty old parchment while drinking from a chalice. Kudos to Lauren Groff. 

Book Review - Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

I looked forward to reading Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff.  I read some excellent reviews. I liked the title a lot, and it sounded intriguing. Now I report some ambivalence. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Lotto and Mathilde meet and marry in a whirlwind. They are glamorous, destined for greatness, and are madly in love. We read about the early ups and downs, and start to question this partnership. I wasn't sure if I liked them, and perhaps that is the point of the book.

From the cover blurb - It is with an electric thrill, then, that the reader realizes things are even more remarkable than they have seemed. (oh really hmmm. and I was just thinking less of these people) In an emotionally complicated twist, the perspective shifts, and what began as a story about one extraordinary union becomes so much more. (I didn't really like these people or their friends)
In prose vibrant and original, this is a profoundly moving, surprising, and provocative novel about the yoke joining love, art, and power, and about the influence of perception. 

The writing was very good, and the book did have some twists and turns that were unexpected. However, I did not finished it in stunning silence.

Instead I kinda said, "hmm."