It took some time to adjust to the staccato of Groff's sentences, but those sentences are quite lovely. I learned some new words; I used the dictionary feature on my kindle for the first time. Couple new vocabulary with trying to remember Greek mythological references, sometimes the book made me feel a bit dim, but I gave in to the ride.

And the ride is a bit slow to begin; it took me a week to read the first half, Lotto's half, and only two days to finish the second half which centered on his wife Mathilde. The book feels uneven because of this; Mathilde is so unknown to the reader (and Lotto!) in the first half, and she comes to life in the second half through a series of plot twists that unpack everything in Lotto's section. It's great narrative work, and I admire it even if the characters still seemed a bit distant and hard to grasp wholly.