Chances Are (Russo)

Chances Are...
Richard Russo, 2019
Knopf Doubleday
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101947746


Summary
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls comes a new revelation: a riveting story about the abiding yet complex power of friendship.

One beautiful September day, three men convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college circa the sixties.

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 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: the disappearance of the woman each of them loved—Jacy Calloway.

Now, more than forty years later, as this new weekend unfolds, three lives are displayed in their entirety while the distant past confounds the present like a relentless squall of surprise and discovery.

Shot through with Russo's trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are… also introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the reader's heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga of how friendship's bonds are every bit as constricting and rewarding as those of family or any other community.

For both longtime fans and lucky newcomers, Chances Are… is a stunning demonstration of a highly acclaimed author deepening and expanding his remarkable achievement. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—July 15, 1949
• Where—Johnstown, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., M.F. A. and Ph.D., University of Arizona
• Awards—Pulitzer Prize
• Currently—lives in Camden, Maine


Prizewinning author Richard Russo is regarded by many critics as the best writer about small-town America since Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis. "He doesn't over-sentimentalize [small towns]," said Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for NPR's "Fresh Air." Nor does he belittle the dreams and hardships of his working-class characters. "I come from a blue-collar family myself and I think he gets the class interactions; he just really nails class in his novels," said Corrigan.

When Russo left his own native small town in upstate New York, it was with hopes of becoming a college professor. But during his graduate studies, he began to have second thoughts about the academic life. While finishing up his doctorate, he took a creative writing class; and a new career path opened in front of him.

Russo's first novel set the tone for much of his later work. The story of an ailing industrial town and the interwoven lives of its inhabitants, Mohawk won critical praise for its witty, engaging style. In subsequent books, he has brought us a dazzling cast of characters, mostly working-class men and women who are struggling with the problems of everyday life (poor health, unemployment, mounting bills, failed marriages) in dilapidated, claustrophobic burghs that have—like their denizens—seen better days. In 2001, Russo received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, a brilliant, tragicomic set-piece that explores past and present relationships in a once-thriving Maine town whose textile mill and shirt factory have gone bust.

Russo's vision of America would be bleak, except for the wit and optimism he infuses into his stories. Even when his characters are less than lovable, they are funny, rueful, and unfailingly human. "There's a version of myself that I still see in a kind of alternative universe and it's some small town in upstate New York or someplace like that," Russo said in an interview. That ability to envision himself in the bars and diners of small-town America has served him well. "After the last sentence is read, the reader continues to see Russo's tender, messed-up people coming out of doorways, lurching through life," said the fiction writer Annie Proulx. "And keeps on seeing them because they are as real as we are."

Extras
From a 2005 Barnes & Noble interview:

• In 1994, Russo's book Nobody's Fool was made into a movie starring Paul Newman and Bruce Willis. Newman also starred in the 1998 movie Twilight, for which Russo wrote the screenplay. Russo now divides his time between writing fiction and writing for the movies.

• When he wrote his first books, Russo was employed full-time as a college teacher and would stop at the local diner between classes to work on his novels. After the success of Nobody's Food (the book and movie), he was able to quit teaching—but he still likes to write in tight spots, such as the Camden Deli. It's "a less lonely way to write," he told USA Today. "I'm less self-conscious when it's not so quiet."

• When asked what his favorite books are, he offered this list:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens—All of Dickens, really. The breadth of his canvas, the importance he places on vivid minor characters, his understanding that comedy is serious business. And in the character of Pip, I learned, even before I understood I'd learned it, that we recognize ourselves in a character's weakness as much than his strength. When Pip is ashamed of Joe, the best man he knows, we see ourselves, and it's terrible, hard-won knowledge. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain—Twain's great novel demonstrates that you can go to the very darkest places if you're armed with a sense of humor. His study of American bigotry, ignorance, arrogance, and violence remains so fresh today, alas, because human nature remains pretty constant. I understand the contemporary controversy, of course. Huck's discovery that Jim is a man is hardly a blinding revelation to black readers, but the idea that much of what we've been taught by people in authority is a crock should resonate with everybody. Especially these days.  

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald—Mostly, I suppose, because his concerns -- class, money, the invention of self -- are so central to the American experience. Fitzgerald understood that our most vivid dreams are often rooted in self-doubt and weakness. Many people imagine that we identify with strength and virtue. Fitzgerald knew better.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck—For the beauty of the book's omniscience. It's fine for writers to be humble. Most of us have a lot to be humble about. But it does you no good to be timid. Pretend to be God? Why not? (Bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)

Book Reviews
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 - New York Times Book Review


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 - Washington Post


[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 - Boston Globe


Irresistible… with the complexities of human relationships, from first love to parenthood to aging [and] rich with humor.
Colette Bancroft - Tampa Bay Times


[Russo] mixes his signature themes—father-and-son relationships, unrequited love, small-town living, and the hiccups of aging—with stealthy clue-dropping in a slow-to-build mystery…. In the final stretch, surprising, long-kept secrets are revealed. This is vintage Russo.
Publishers Weekly


Pulitzer Prize winner Russo returns with a bittersweet tale of longtime friendship and lost love that has a surprising—and surprisingly satisfying—ending.
Library Journal


(Starred review) For his first stand-alone novel in 10 years, Russo has written a bewitching tale of male friendship with thriller elements…. This is vintage Russo with a cunning twist.
Booklist


(Starred review) No one understands men better than Russo, and no one is more eloquent in explaining how they think, suffer, and love.… [Chances Are…] blends everything we love about this author… in [his] distinctive, richly observed world and his inimitable ironic voice.
Kirkus Reviews


A surprising work that is as much a mystery as a meditation on secrets and friendship…. [A] moving portrait of aging men who discover the world's worst-kept secret:  You may not know the people you thought you were closest to.
BookPage

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for CHANCES ARE … and then take off on your own:

1. How would you describe each of the three men—Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey—who show up on Martha's Vineyard for this reunion? Talk about the differences in their personalities and backgrounds. Given those differences, what drew them together, years ago, as friends? Of the three, do you have a particular favorite?

2. How has each man changed over the past 44 years, since they were last all together. Importantly, how have they not changed: in what sense do their past lives, even their relationships with their fathers, say, continue to shape them? As Faulkner famously quipped, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." How does that summation play out for Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey?

3. What was Jacy Calloway like? Discuss the revelations that eventually emerge about her life. What was her relationship with each of the younger men?

4. Lincoln wonders, "What would Jacy think if she could see them now?… Three goddamn old men." How, in fact, might she see them?

5. One of the book's themes is the way random events can set life on a seemingly irreversible path. As Russo writes, "yank out one thread from the fabric of human destiny, and everything unravels. Though it could also be said that things have a tendency to unravel regardless."  How do you see that observation occurring throughout Chances Are….

6. Follow-up to Question 5: What missed opportunities or moral failings, revealed early on in the lives of the characters, have continued to shape each of them and how they have lived their lives?

7. What is the prevailing attitude of the male characters in this book toward women? As Teddy says, "Men. We ignore women when they’re right and we start wars and generally screw things up." The retired policeman even admits, "We don’t do right by girls."

8. Were you caught off guard by the plot twist at the end? Did you see it coming... or not? Some critics have said they didn't even though, in a close re-read, the clues are all there. The Boston Globe, for instance, called the final reveal a "stunner" and a "bombshell," yet one that felt "earned." What were your expectations? 

9. How does the book's title, taken from a Johnny Mathis song, stand in for the book's theme?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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