Thoughts 
by Lauren Groff, Penguin Audiobook 2015, 14 hours 9 minutes
Narrated by Will Damron and Julia Whelan
Challenge: For Tournament of Books Genre: Contemporary Lit Type/Source: Audiobook/Audible – my 1 free monthly creditWHAT’s it ABOUT: This is a story of a marriage. An exceptionally privileged white boy “Lotto” short for Lancelot and his mysterious soul mate, Mathilde. The first half of the book is Lotto besotted in love and failing as an actor but becoming wildly successful as a playwright. The second half is Matilde’s side of the story.
WHAT’s GOOD: It’s artsy, it’s sexy. There’s a lot of sex in this. I was utterly fascinated, truthfully. Though it has been accused of being full of ‘purple prose’ and being pretentious and humorless, I enjoyed it. I thought it suited the smugness of the couple. I guess I will admit my favorite color is purple. I found it amusing.
What’s NOT so good: Pretentious? I kept going back and forth between thinking “I bet some will find this very pretentious.” Especially when they named the dog. I admit, I liked Lotto’s side more. I wish I didn’t. Matilde is so unlike anyone I would ever hope to know! We meet Lotto-types All. The. Time. By the end, I was ready for it to be over so it dropped a half point just for tiring me out.
FINAL THOUGHTS: If you think you might like this, you might. If you can’t stand people who are selfish and smug, skip. Go read the commentary at the Rooster and don’t worry about spoilers — in fact, it was almost spoiled by suggesting there was a big WOO HOO and it wasn’t really anything in my opinion.
RATING: Four slices but could be 3 1/2. Thus and however, if I had to pick a favorite of this to Turner House? Tough tough tough because very different books. I think I might have to say the Flournoy. GO TURNER HOUSE GO!!!! Cheering for it since my bracket is bust at this point.
(Written but not posted before the round announced that The Turner House will advance. YAY!)
Pie Mentions: YES, tons. Many: pumpkin, apple, “Oh girl pie – don’t take it so hard.”, pies cooling on the windowsill, “Yoders Pie”?… The ‘winner’ must be the nickname the other children at his boarding school gives Lotto can not be typed because it is not the kind of language I use here at Care’s Books and Pie.
Of course, I loved that while Matilde was grieving, she made pie…
Care's Books and Pie 
Wahaha! 😀 I love this review. My favourite colour is purple too. And, I wonder what’s their dog’s name. 🙂
You want to know what the dog’s name is?! Just spell dog backward.
Wow! 🙂
This was one of my favorites last year, so I’m glad to see you enjoyed it, especially with the audio. Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes it feels like books of this type (so much about the writing) can be either incredibly boring or sound ridiculous on audio but are great in print.
Groff reminds me of Tartt in that the books FEEL weighty and snobbily-literate and they deliver. You may not like them but you understand why readers love/hate them.
Well, damn. I loved The Goldfinch but was so-so about The Secret History. But at least I have a good comparison, writing-style wise, to consider going in. And I did like Tartt’s writing.
Hey – me, too. Altho, I might not say I LOOOOOVEd the Godfinch, I liked it better than Secret History. (Perhaps also because Tartt narrated that one… cringe) Give Fates and Furies a shot – I doubt you’ll regret it.
I’m not big on purple prose but am curious about this book so will probably give it a try.
If everyone you know has read it and wants to talk about? That was how I was feeling. I have a friend who reads the ‘hot’ and recently published – I can’t keep up!
I agree about the big WOOHOO. Maybe if it hadn’t gotten so much attention it would have felt more like a woohoo.
I guess I’m going to have to read The Turner House!
Are you following the Rooster?!
A little bit!
I (hearted) this book. It’s a 4 star with a 5 star second half, IMO. Purple is my favorite color too! 😉
Also, I am betting (hoping?) this this will be a Zombie in the TOB.
I totally missed the Zombie voting!!! ugh.
But YAY! ? – I am giving up at this point and just enjoying the fray.
I have been seeing this around, but I am not sure I want to rush out and read it. Maybe at some point!
Let it be one of those years-later and see if it holds up? cool.
I think you’re the first person I’ve seen who liked part 1 more than part 2! But, I agree – you do see Lottos all the time in life. And I also agree about people possibly thinking it was pretentious. I didn’t, but I just thought it boring at times. But, also brilliant at times!
I could blame the Rooster commentary on wanting to get it finished since I was reading all the chatter with still a few hours to go. I get impatient. But yea, I think I liked Lotto in a dumb puppy kind of way. No matter how nasty his motha was, it was sad he didn’t see her.
First, your header photo looks delicious!! Second, I think I might like this book and will give it a try at some point… hadn’t thought about audio though. Just listened to a sample and like it. Thanks.
Well, that’s WONDERFUL! The narration was quite good, not maybe “Juliet-Whatshername-good” but suited the story well. Very well.
When you sample a duo narration when they don’t interact, do you get the chance to hear both? Just wonderin’…
No. Unfortunately, you only hear what (or who) is in the particular audio clip audible provides… and that usually means just one narrator. So it’s a little harder to make a final decision.
You could listen to the narrator read something else, I suppose… 😊
Artsy and sexy sounds good to me.
I think you might like it. Especially if we could meet up and discuss over a glass of wine?
My club was supposed to read this last month but no one wanted to buy a hardback copy so it go pushed to much later this year.
I can’t wait to read it. It sounds like my thing. I was thinking about what “my thing” is and I seem to love anything that deals with messed-up people who are married. Ha.
Let’s read The New World? though I understand it is better read on the app. And it is 99 cents right now so I will send the deets when I find then again…
Yes! Send me the deets. I already have a copy, I’m pretty sure.
Oh man, that dog’s name is just dog spelled backwards? LOL! I am not entirely sure that this one is for me. I haven’t read anything by this author and her having a lot of fans is what is keeping me away from her books. Hype and all, you know.
Can’t wait to get back to this one. A slump took me out of it before.
I keep going back and forth about whether I want to read this or not. I think where I’m at now is roughly, I do want to read it, but I’ll be fairly quick to abandon it if the writing doesn’t work for me right away.
They named their dog God? Wow.
I’m not crazy about purple, so I guess I’ll miss this one, despite all the pie.
Yay! I liked this one too, very much. I think it is one that you either like or you don’t I have yet to come across anyone in the in between.
The commentary at TOB made me want to skip this one, but your review has me wanting to read it immediately. I love smug and pretentious if only because it makes books somewhat fun to read when you can’t stand a character.
Ya know? I think you might actually LIKE this!!!!