Chances Are, by Richard Russo
Penguin Random House
Fiction - General, Literary
Print
301 Pages
Fiction - General, Literary
301 Pages
* I received this ARC courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada in exchange of an honest review. This does not influence the following opinions which are my own.
My Rating (out of 5)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Emotionally rich and atmospheric, Chances Are is an engaging, character driven literary mystery.
Set in 1971, amid the political backdrop of the Viet Nam war, three young men; Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey - friends and roommates, and Jacy - the young woman they all love, are finishing college. As the Memorial weekend comes to an end, they all leave Martha's Vineyard and head into their futures. Jacy immediately disappears, not to be heard from again.
Forty years later, the men, all in their sixties reunite at the beach house for a weekend. Jacy's absence is palpable and her disappearance has haunted these men over the years.
Told in alternating points of view, the past and the present are revealed and then blended together to show how each of these very different people became who they were when they met, as they went their separate ways in 1971, and who they became in the years since. As the secrets of their lives are slowly revealed, we eventually find out what happened to Jacy when she left Martha's Vineyard in 1971.
I really enjoyed how this character driven story played out. Russo tells a story of of what differs and what stays the same over the course of time through his characters. From the mood and the feel of the sixties through the eyes of the three young men having just entered adulthood against the backdrop the war and the draft, to the men they had become forty years later as they look to their their roots, hidden but firmly planted in the past. Russo's characters have a very real feel to them. They are emotionally complex, likable - but not without faults.
Jacy's character was also well developed and likable. The reader wants to know what happened to this young woman, and the truth behind the mystery of her disappearance is carefully revealed to the reader with graceful literary timing.
This was a first book for me from this author, but unlikely to be the last.
Set in 1971, amid the political backdrop of the Viet Nam war, three young men; Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey - friends and roommates, and Jacy - the young woman they all love, are finishing college. As the Memorial weekend comes to an end, they all leave Martha's Vineyard and head into their futures. Jacy immediately disappears, not to be heard from again.
Forty years later, the men, all in their sixties reunite at the beach house for a weekend. Jacy's absence is palpable and her disappearance has haunted these men over the years.
Told in alternating points of view, the past and the present are revealed and then blended together to show how each of these very different people became who they were when they met, as they went their separate ways in 1971, and who they became in the years since. As the secrets of their lives are slowly revealed, we eventually find out what happened to Jacy when she left Martha's Vineyard in 1971.
I really enjoyed how this character driven story played out. Russo tells a story of of what differs and what stays the same over the course of time through his characters. From the mood and the feel of the sixties through the eyes of the three young men having just entered adulthood against the backdrop the war and the draft, to the men they had become forty years later as they look to their their roots, hidden but firmly planted in the past. Russo's characters have a very real feel to them. They are emotionally complex, likable - but not without faults.
Jacy's character was also well developed and likable. The reader wants to know what happened to this young woman, and the truth behind the mystery of her disappearance is carefully revealed to the reader with graceful literary timing.
This was a first book for me from this author, but unlikely to be the last.
Happy Reading,
Christine
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