Chances Are...

The novel is set in 2015 on Martha's Vineyard, an island on the coast of Massachusetts. In the late 1960s the three friends met each other in a college in Connecticut where they fell in love with Jacy. They then took their chances in the birthdate draft lottery which cast a shadow over their possibility of their call-up to the Vietnam War. Now sixty-six years old, Lincoln Moser is a commercial real estate broker, Teddy Novak is a small religious publisher, and Mickey Girardi is a rock-musician; all have their secrets. In 1971, Jacy Calloway disappeared and has never been found, and the friends consider what may have happened to her, as the truth is eventually revealed...

• Mark Lawson in The Guardian praises Russo: "His stories are omnisciently narrated in a tone of sardonic understanding of human folly, which places him in the house of American style on a polished mezzanine between the poetic complexity of John Updike and the gentler observation of Anne Tyler...around the shivers and guilts of a missing person story, Russo ultimately remains loyal to his previous mission to represent realistically the textures of average lives. The impeccably delayed revelation of what happened to Jacy is satisfying, but more Russo than Ian Rankin. The gone girl turns out to have been caught in the novel’s twin undercurrents of Vietnam and the hands people are dealt: she has been very unlucky, but in a way that few will guess."[2]
• In The New York Times Alida Backer is generally positive: "The suspense may carry you through the first half of the novel, but what works better is Russo’s depiction of his central characters, with their father issues and insecurities about class and money, their ingrained cluelessness about women and their need to present a certain image to the world, even if they’re pretty sure the world couldn’t care less...the cloud of remorse that hangs over Chances Are… 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?"[3]
• Ron Charles in the Washington Post is rather mixed: Chances Are... rotates gently through these characters — each one so appealing that you hate to let him go, though you'll quickly feel just as fond of the next one...Unfortunately, Russo tries to complicate our understanding of Jacy by diving deeper into the mystery of her disappearance. That results in a long section of increasingly melodramatic revelations involving a host of offstage characters. But this isn't storytelling; it's gossip.Once the novel gets back to the present day, it regains a more nuanced and satisfying tone. Lincoln, Mickey and especially Teddy are allowed a second chance at life they never expected. It's disappointing, though, to see how firmly such complexity is denied the female characters. Yet Russo is an undeniably endearing writer, and chances are this story will draw you back to the most consequential moments in your own life.[4]

• Richard Russo on Misogyny and Why War Is Never Far Away
• Episode 378: Richard Russo, Author of Chances Are…
• Richard Russo discusses his novel , "Chances Are", at Politics and Prose. on YouTube
• One on One with Richard Russo "Chances Are..." on YouTube