The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah PittardBack-of-the-book blurb: Sixteen-year-old Nora Lindell is missing. And the neighborhood boys she’s left behind are caught forever in the heady current of her absence.
As the days and years pile up, the mystery of her disappearance grows kaleidoscopically. A collection of rumors, divergent suspicions, and tantalizing what-ifs, Nora Lindell’s story is a shadowy projection of teenage lust, friendship, reverence, and regret, captured magically in the disembodied plural voice of the boys who still long for her.
Told in haunting, percussive prose, Hannah Pittard’s beautifully crafted novel tracks the emotional progress of the sister Nora left behind, the other families in their leafy suburban enclave, and the individual fates of the boys in her thrall. Far more eager to imagine Nora’s fate than to scrutinize their own, the boys sleepwalk into an adulthood of jobs, marriages, families, homes, and daughters of their own, all the while pining for a girl–and a life–that no longer exists, except in the imagination.
A masterful literary debut that shines a light into the dream-filled space between childhood and all that follows, The Fates Will Find Their Way is a story about the stories we tell ourselves–of who we once were and may someday become.
She Is Too Fond of Books’ review: You know how a half dozen witnesses to a car accident or a robbery will have six divergent opinions about what happened. They’ll disagree on what the people involved look like, what they said, what they did … And this is a memory of something that they knew was important as it happened.
What if you didn’t know the significance of an event until after it happened? Until some time – maybe only a day – had passed?
What if you were a teenage boy and a female peer disappeared, never to be heard from again? Would you try to make sense of it – then, and in years to come? Would you create scenarios of what might have happened, recreating scenes of the last time you saw the girl, your earlier interactions, and what might have possibly happened to her in the time since she disappeared?
Hannah Pittard says, yes, this is our inclination; to make sense of whatever framework we have, no matter how many holes and contradictions it carries.
The Fates Will Find Their Way is the brilliant result. We are with those adolescent boys, now in their forties, as they dip back into the time when Nora Lindell went missing, and following their thoughts about what happened to her, her family, and the town around her. The narrator is unidentified - names are dropped, stories are told, memories are shared. Is this really what happened to Nora, or simply a plausible outcome?
We see their high school years thirty years after the fact, with the clarity of hindsight, or perhaps a revisionist history. The boys – now men – recall another female classmate, one who unintentionally intimidated the other girls (and some of the boys) with her confidence and ease:
She was ahead of us in some ways. What’s clear now is that she knew what it would take years for the rest of us to learn – that none of it mattered, that all of the ins and outs and chagrins of childhood were meaningless. What mattered was what was ahead, so fuck it. Do it, say it, be it. She was a go-getter and that scared the hell out of us, but it also intrigued us, as did the fact that the other girls steered clear of her. And so of course she became the girl we championed. How could she not?
The novel is as much about the narrator as it is about Nora. Is it a single narrator, or multiple voices? I wouldn’t feel confident saying whether it was one or many, but my sense was a seamless transition from one scene to another, a unified voice. Rather than being disconcerting, this ambiguity is an intentional part of the structure; one that is a natural fit with the theme of the novel.
Hannah Pittard writes a compact novel, tight and spring-loaded. It’s a book that you can read on a cold winter afternoon, tucked warm and safe under a blanket … knowing for certain … that nothing is certain. I read the last chapter four times … and counting; it’s haunting, truthful, wise, and real. The Fates Will Find Their Way is a book that will stay with you.
I think we would all look back and try to make sense of that time. This sounds like a thought provoking book.
I have always thought it was interesting that different people remember such varying things after a major event, and think this book sounds like it would be an excellent read for me. I am going to have to check this one out. It sounds rather interesting! Great review, Dawn!
Is it book club worthy? My yearly book selection meeting is this Thursday and I need a book that will prompt a lot of discussion.
This sounds really really gripping – I am definitely in. XO
I just requested this one from the library. It sounds fantastic! There was a very short-lived tv show that dealt with these issues, In Justice. I loved the show, which ended each episode with the crime as it actually happened. Many dealt with how the witnesses saw what they saw correctly but jumped to the wrong conclusions. It’s such a fascinating idea.
Each time I get together with my besties from high school, it is truly amazing at how different our memories are about certain events (and sometimes, some of us don’t even remember it at all). Their perception about something that happened to me, and vice versa. It is crazy. At that age, we were so self-absorbed. This is a great review, and you make it nearly impossible not to want to read it. Since I am immersed in The Dare, my only hope is an audio…
I have high hopes for this one, so I am glad to see you liked it so much!
The description of this one reminds me a lot of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, and I’m intrigued enough to add it to my wish list.
I reviewed this one today as well, although I think you worded it much better than I did. Great review!
Kathy – yes, thought-provoking. And much of it NOT about what was happening on the pages
zibilee – oh, you’ll like it!
Ti -Hmm, it will definitely prompt discussion, but I think as much will be about the book group members (their lives) as it is about the novel
Rebecca – no birds were harmed in the writing/reading of this novel
Carrie – that show does sound good! This isn’t a mystery in the traditional sense, and it’s not a crime investigation …
Sandy – sometimes what we *think* happened becomes so ingrained that we’re convinced that’s the only possibility, it HAD to be that way. (kind of like when a kid tells a lie, and defends it so strongly he believes it)
Swapna – I’ll look forward to your thoughts, too.
Florinda – yes, the unnamed narrator, who is IN the midst of the action is a similar structure; that’s a good connection.
Shelly – isn’t that the greatest thing about easy access to reviews on blogs — all the many voices give a complete picture. Popping over to read your thoughts now …
Wow, that sounds really great. I hadn’t heard of it before but now it’ll be on my TBR pile for sure! Thanks for the review
Okay … that last paragraph was pretty powerful “haunting, truthful, wise, and real.” Who can resist?
Read the last chapter 4 times? I am going to have to check this one out.
I’ve been reading lots of positive reviews of this one today! I’m excited to read it. I am intrigued by the premise but also that the there is a plural narrator!
Great review. I really like your car accident witness comparison. It’s spot on. The Fates Will Find Their Way is a wonderful debut. I thought about it for several days after finishing it. Pittard’s style is captivating. If you’d like to read my thoughts, they are here.
Kath – I think you’ll be seeing THE FATES WILL FIND THEIR WAY at the front of most bookstores. A very good read.
Beth F – the narrator(s) aren’t saying anything earth-shattering; it’s the wisdom that comes with age and experience.
Lisa – it’s a very short (2 pages) chapter
Kathleen – very, very interesting narration. Totally readable (not distracting or confusing)
iubookgirl – thanks! Heading over to read your review ….
I’ve heard some really great things about this book and I definitely want to read it. I love books like this with multiple narrators that in the end leave you questioning everything.
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