July 18, 2019
Chances Are... by Richard Russo
Lincoln,
Teddy, and Mickey have known each other since they were freshmen at Minerva
College where they were all scholarship students. The year they graduated from college, they
spent Memorial Day weekend at Lincoln’s cottage on Martha’s Vineyard, along
with a sorority girl named Jacy whom they were all in love with. At the end of the long weekend, Jacy
disappears but the three guys don’t know if she went off of her own accord or was
taken. Even though they’ve all gotten
older, they have never moved past the mystery of what happened to Jacy. All three swear they have no idea what happened to her, but one
of them does indeed hold the answer.
Overall, I am a fan of Richard Russo’s fiction. There have been a couple of titles that I didn’t think were up to his usual standards (That Old Cape Magic, Bridge of Sighs), but mostly I really enjoy his books. This one is some place in the middle.
All of the characters have father fixations/issues. There are backstories for the three men (especially Lincoln and Teddy), but of the four characters, I found Jacy to be the least developed. Other than the fact that she was a hot rich babe, I never got a sense of what made her so special. It's kind of depressing that three 60+ year old men are still so fixated on a girl they were salivating over in college.
And much of the last 60 or so pages is pure fantasy - no guy would be able to keep it a secret from his friends for over 40 years when he finally got to nail the hot chick of their dreams, nor have I ever heard men apologizing so profusely to each other. When it came to the big reveal about what happened to Jacy, the other two guys are completely understanding and empathetic - I would have told guy #3 to wait a minute, then I would have gone to the kitchen, got a cast iron skillet, and hit guy #3 over the head with it until he was unconscious. Then I would have shoved his body off the deck. It's not friendship to make the two guys who are supposedly your best friends suffer for 40 years.
Russo has a wonderful way with words and the writing in this book is no exception. But the characters and the plot didn't really work for me. I hope Russo's next outing is better.
Overall, I am a fan of Richard Russo’s fiction. There have been a couple of titles that I didn’t think were up to his usual standards (That Old Cape Magic, Bridge of Sighs), but mostly I really enjoy his books. This one is some place in the middle.
All of the characters have father fixations/issues. There are backstories for the three men (especially Lincoln and Teddy), but of the four characters, I found Jacy to be the least developed. Other than the fact that she was a hot rich babe, I never got a sense of what made her so special. It's kind of depressing that three 60+ year old men are still so fixated on a girl they were salivating over in college.
And much of the last 60 or so pages is pure fantasy - no guy would be able to keep it a secret from his friends for over 40 years when he finally got to nail the hot chick of their dreams, nor have I ever heard men apologizing so profusely to each other. When it came to the big reveal about what happened to Jacy, the other two guys are completely understanding and empathetic - I would have told guy #3 to wait a minute, then I would have gone to the kitchen, got a cast iron skillet, and hit guy #3 over the head with it until he was unconscious. Then I would have shoved his body off the deck. It's not friendship to make the two guys who are supposedly your best friends suffer for 40 years.
Russo has a wonderful way with words and the writing in this book is no exception. But the characters and the plot didn't really work for me. I hope Russo's next outing is better.
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