Matrix
2021 • 9 pages
Ratings34
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings34
Average rating3.9
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2021 Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, The Financial Times, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Vulture, Marie Claire, Vox, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today and more! “A relentless exhibition of Groff’s freakish talent. In just over 250 pages, she gives us a character study to rival Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell .” – USA Today “An electric reimagining . . . feminist, sensual . . . unforgettable.” – O, The Oprah Magazine “Thrilling and heartbreaking.” –Time Magazine “[A] page-by-page pleasure as we soar with her.” –New York Times One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with her exhilarating first new novel since the groundbreaking Fates and Furies. Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough? Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around. Lauren Groff’s new novel, her first since Fates and Furies, is a defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world.
Reviews with the most likes.
Matrix is a book about 12th century nuns. I realize this sounds impossibly boring, but Lauren Groff makes these characters feel present and compelling.
The novel follows the adult life of Marie de France, a royal-adjacent woman who is shipped off to be the prioress (sort of like the COO, as I understand it) of an English abbey at the age of seventeen. She is not religious and, unsurprisingly, isn't thrilled to be there. What follows is the story of her life at the abbey, her relationship to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and a peek into the High Middle Ages in England that feels relatable.
Groff's writing is enthralling, if a little heavy on the description. She is particularly skilled at writing about emotions and inner lives, even when writing mostly in the third person. What I liked most about this book was how feminist it feels, despite being set in a decidedly patriarchal time and place. The nuns undertake typically feminine pursuits such as spinning, weaving, and gardening, but also copy manuscripts (a job for monks), work the land, and engineer large infrastructure projects. These women live their lives without men, of necessity, and the picture Groff paints is of complete lives.
I enjoyed this book, and will look more at Groff's other work (this is my first read of hers).
Wow, this book. Much like The Nickel Boys was my top pick for 2020 and immediately shot to the top of my favorites, this book has done that for 2021. Loved the blend of subversion and charge with pastoral, plodding, and liturgical.
the writing style is a little weird, but once you get used to it it is very beautiful
It had a pretty good rating, so i started with enthousiasm. The blur on the back talks about female warriors and a prioress who teaches swordwork. Well it was not about female warriors. It was about a woman, who comes to the abbes and becomes prioress. She changes how things are done and gets different reactions for it. The beginning was okay, but I had to force myself to read it after a 100 pages. There are better books out there.
