As soon as we look at the work of Lauren groff we discover the typical atypical American storyteller. A new Foster Wallace in love with estrangement as an alternative to uniformity and trends. One more writer in the necessary plethora of chroniclers against the dormidera as an extended literary resource. Symptom of that decadence lodged in the mediocrity of thought.
And perhaps it is not that it is something intended. At worst it is not a question of writing to lighten that part of the soul anxious about some kind of revolution. Because even Lauren's work is sufficiently sustained from the form, it acquires a special shine only from her foray into that deformed world of routine made mosaic or puzzle lifted by the winds of time and consciousness, that warping of the flash back more delusional than any literature can house.
Yes, perhaps there is no revolution but aesthetics. But everything that comes out of the canons awakens that longing vision of the different without shame, of explorations without prejudices. Lauren is all of that, perhaps with the simple idea of ​​being a teller of concerns or very personal notions of the world that end up soaking us in those drops of disturbing truth...
Top 3 Recommended Books by Lauren Groff
In the hands of the furies
When do you stop being a stranger in a relationship? Beyond routines, conformity and comfort, when do you end up deciding that that one over there, the one hugging his partner after the last orgasm, is you? Because all accommodation is renunciation and all sharing is denying yourself...
A man and a woman walk very close together on the beach. It's cold, but it doesn't matter. Suddenly they hide behind some dunes to celebrate their first act of carnal love. He is Lotto, she is Mathilde, they are both twenty-two years old and have just gotten married, although they have only been together for about fifteen days and know very little about each other. The thread of blood that stains Mathilde's thighs seals this delivery that seems absolute and exclusive, and it will be that way for more than twenty years.
Lotto and Mathilde become the almost perfect couple; a glance is enough for them to understand each other, a conspiratorial gesture for the two to leave a crowded room and take advantage of any corner to love each other. Lotto writes plays in line with his passion for Shakespeare and Mathilde becomes the ideal wife, who is a muse, businesswoman and housewife. Well…
Well, until suddenly fate imposes itself. It is then when we discover that marriage, well looked at, is a long conversation, and that in this talk there are holes, omissions, single words that can be white lies or pins. And the fact is that every story always has at least two ways of being told. .
Florida
Everything apocalyptic now takes on those veneers of certainty that before Covid seemed like the delirium of a pessimist, conspiracy theorist, worshiper of Nostradamus and reader of Malthus. But yes, now the apocalypse whispers our stories at night before we go to sleep and bounces back into our consciousness as soon as we open our eyes again. A fatalistic clairvoyance that literature has always skirted, surely to prepare us.
In a world where the weather has become unpredictable, a place both domesticated and wild where the fierce dangers of nature lurk, the greatest threats remain emotional and psychological. A family haven can be destroyed by a prowling panther or a sexual secret.
Two abandoned sisters, a man who grows up surrounded by snakes hunted by his father, a restless and childless couple, and a disoriented married woman are some of the protagonists of these eleven unforgettable stories. The state of Florida becomes a metaphor for the entire planet, a laboratory for exploring love relationships, loneliness, anger, family and the passage of time.
The monsters of Templeton
When one's past fails to catch you, there will always be someone who will stumble across it in the most unpredictable way. And then the old views of the photos will take on another meaning, and the superfluous details draw new timelines towards new stories that needed to be told like a secret barely held in gravity. Then Lauren took care of making everything even more strange with a grotesque fantasy that makes more and more sense as the monstrous truth makes its way into reality.
Confused and exhausted after a disastrous relationship, Willie Upton abandons his studies in archeology and crosses the country to return, in search of peace, to his place of origin, the idyllic town of Templeton, in the state of New York. However, the day after his arrival, the appearance of the corpse of a fifteen-meter monster in the waters of the lake breaks the tranquility of the place. As if that were not enough, Willie discovers that his mother, a former hippy and single mother, lied to him about his father's identity, and the most she is now willing to admit is that he is a Templeton man.
So when Willie begins to delve into the town's history and mythology, as many secrets from his family tree will come to light, and a series of unexpected and revealing connections will be made between past and present.
