Chances Are...

A Novel

By: Richard Russo

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

“[Russo’s] first novel in ten years hits the ball out of the park.... You’ll lap up this gripping, wise, and wonderful summer treat.” (The Boston Globe)

“A cascade of charm.... Russo is an undeniably endearing writer, and chances are this story will draw you back to the most consequential moments in your own life.” (The Washington Post)

One beautiful September day, three men in their late 60s convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the '60s. They couldn't have been more different then or even today - Lincoln's a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey is a musician beyond his rockin' age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971. Now, 45 years later, three lives and that of a significant other are put on display while the distant past confounds the present in a relentless squall of surprise and discovery. Shot through with Russo's trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are... introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the listener's heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga.

©2019 Richard Russo (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[Russo’s] first novel in ten years hits the ball out of the park.... Along with his wry eye for irony and regret, [Russo] offers up a compelling mystery.... When the denouement comes, it’s a stunner. Nevertheless, all bombshells feel earned. If you’re on a hammock in the Vineyard or under a tent in Acadia, or slumped over the fire escape of your hot city apartment, chances are your chances are awfully good that you’ll lap up this gripping, wise, and wonderful summer treat.” (Mameve Medwed, The Boston Globe)

“A cascade of charm.... Each [character is] so appealing that you hate to let him go, though you’ll quickly feel just as fond of the next one.... One of the great pleasures of Chances Are... stems from how gracefully Russo moves the story along two time frames, creating that uncanny sense of memories that feel simultaneously near and remote.... Russo is an undeniably endearing writer, and chances are this story will draw you back to the most consequential moments in your own life.” (Ron Charles, The Washington Post)

"Chances Are... is, at heart, less a mystery than an evocation of what happens when [its characters] discover that 'the membrane separating sympathy from pity could be paper thin'.... The cloud of remorse that hangs over [the novel] can be affecting precisely because these old friends have so much difficulty articulating their emotions. Will they be able to open up to whatever the future holds?" (Alida Becker, The New York Times Book Review)

A bit of a let down after bland build up

I feel it started out on a good note-you know something happened to the girl, each grown man is wondering what happened, how things could have turned out differently when they all were in college and in love with this girl. I kind of liked how the story went back and forth from when they each were growing up, to how things were in college and where they all went after graduation to present day as middle aged men. I liked how each person was shown with their vulnerabilities, where things took different turns in their lives. But that’s where my liking of this story ends. The ending is terrible in my opinion. I guess I shouldn’t be so harsh as each character is vulnerable and trying to figure it all out, especially in middle age. But how it all comes to a head just shows up. Here’s this big mystery with mediocre build up and it all kind of flops, taking forever to get there.

slow starter

This book took a few chapters before I was drawn in. once in did not want to put it down.

A Mixed Bag

There are great elements but parts of the story seem contrived. Character development is similarly uneven.

Possible answers to the questions of youth.

Fate or Free Will? Accident or Predestination?

Who we were then and who we are now? Who we thought we would be and what we expected we’d do vs who we turned out to be and what we did. All the questions we asked when we were young and asked again in later years.

All these issues addressed and maybe answered by three finely wrought characters during an island reunion fifty years and many page-turning scenes from their youth, later.

As all of Russo’s work, Chances Are . . . is an engaging piece that reflects on the thoughts and actions of old men looking back on the thoughts and actions of their youth. Without giving anything away, the reader walks away secure in the notion that survival and even renewal might be possible at any point in life. Might be possible.

A comforting to a gentleman of a certain age and an enjoyable read.

Brilliant.

The mystery unfolds slowly and deliciously. The characters are now old friends who I will miss hearing from for a very long while.

slow to begin, almost stopped,

but glad i didn't.. wish he would do a sequel want to know what happened with Dileha

Loved this book and the reader.

The characters were interesting and well defined. The reader was really, really good. The time period (high school age through 60s) was well done.

Disappointing for a Russo book.

Biggest complaint was narrator. Book quoted many songs. should have been sung, not wierdly chanted. Quite annoying.

Great book with an interesting ending

I suspect a lot of people didn't love the ending, which isn't as straightforwardly upbeat as Nobody's Fool. To my way of thinking, the ending is great, and the fact that it is a very different book is testimony to Russo's abilities as a writer -- he doesn't just repeat his successes.

I'd put this in the top tier of his work.

Started out well but fizzled

Initially, the characters and dialogue were interesting, but the story went on day too long and devolved into rather formulaic teepee work the standard Daddy incessant "store" that I knew was coming way in