Lotto only applied to Vassar because of an excellent party there. Sallie took he and Rachel to Montreal for Christmas, but his mother didn’t come. That summer, his mother suggested he come home for the summer, and he declined. Learning of Gwennie’s death, Lotto began “the era of women”, engaging in as much sex as he could. No one reported him even though Chollie wasn’t likable because they liked Lotto. Chollie got his education that way, auditing classes, even when Lotto went to university, although not registered as a student. Gwennie had overdosed and so Chollie had run away. In sophomore year, Chollie showed up in Lotto’s room. His mother had gotten quite overweight and never came, not even for his graduation. Lotto was never allowed home, but Sallie and Rachel visited him. Also, he made a friend, Samuel, and he went to Samuel’s home for the holidays. Soon after that, Lotto discovered theater, a way to escape his world for another. When he goes to do so, he finds another boy who’d hanged himself. He thought of ways to commit suicide, finally deciding to use the principal’s gun after spotting it in his office. Lotto spent his time homesick and sad at boarding school. They were arrested Lotto was sent to boarding school and Gwennie became an outcast at a school, branded a slut. The house caught on fire, and the firemen and their classmates watched them in the act until they jumped off the roof. The last time they had sex was on a roof of a house during a party.

Gwennie was the first person he had sex with. He would loiter around town with them, do drugs, drink, and attend parties. In particular, the twins Gwennie and Chollie became his friends. Lotto had trouble making friends until he was accepted into a group of misfits. One year later, his mother sold the water company for millions of dollars and moved Lotto and his baby sister Rachel, who was born after his father died, to a small house in Florida. After that, he suddenly got popular with girls. He grew up and lived in a huge plantation house in Hamlin until his father suddenly passed away when he was 13. Lotto was named Lancelot by his mom, but his paternal aunt Sallie made a point to shorten the name to Lotto. Spoilers ahead Fates – Lotto’s side of the story Fates and Furies explores themes of love, power, art, and relationships.

The first part, Fates, is told from Lotto’s perspective, and the second, Furies, from Mathilde’s.įrom the two perspectives, we get to see different aspects of the marriage and the two lives, aspects that would have remained hidden otherwise. This is the story of Lotto and Mathilde’s marriage in two parts. After a whirlwind affair, they got married. Lotto and Mathilde met one night at a party while attending Vassar. Fates and Furies is a literary fiction by Lauren Groff in two parts.

Mathilde fates and furies