I don't know why, I just couldn't get into this book. Even though this book takes place in the 20th century, I got strong Elizabethan vibes -- vibes I do not enjoy reading -- from the beginning of the novel. Additionally, I think this book wasn't very interesting plot-wise. Rich family loses lives in the midst of political conflict and the ramifications of the loss propagate through subsequent generations. The mother's mental illness is genetically (?) passed down to her granddaughter. Not very captivating.

However, one thing I absolutely loved about Fools of Fortune was how Trevor unveils the plot. While the plot itself wasn't stellar, Trevor drops little pieces of the puzzle at various points in the story, leaving them for the reader to assemble. The introduction of the Penguin Classics edition even points this out: "when something escalates or deteriorates, we discover it much as we imagine the characters do, just as we might if we were confronted with a similar situation...we are trusted to draw our own parallels and make our own connections." This Faulknerian style of plot development was quite well done and somewhat redeemed an otherwise uninteresting novel.