Odds [Hardcover]

Patty Friedmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2000

A darkly comic novel about personal triage in the face of life's odds-the odds of genetics, gambling odds, the odds of finding and keeping love, the odds of risk and rescue and survival.. nna Riggs Duffy is a woman painfully out of touch with her own needs. Anna and her husband, George, live in New Orleans with their twins, George Jr. and Gregor. If they are in most ways identical, the twins are also each other's doppelgngers. George is born physically perfect-and mean. Gregor, big-hearted and sweet-natured, has a chromosomal glitch that gave him blunted limbs, stumps without hands or feet. George Sr. seems to love only George Jr., while Anna favors Gregor.But one day there is a tragic accident, and Anna can save only one of the twins.In their grief and estrangement, George turns to another woman while Anna turns to the slot machines in the waterfront casinos, depleting her savings. Can she win George back and save their marriage? And does she really want to, anyway? Anna realizes her odds for survival come to rest squarely on purposefulness instead of on accident and probability in this wonderful and strange new book by Patty Friedmann.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Anna Duffy seems clueless as to just how bad things have gotten in her life until she is forced by tragedy and its aftermath to sit up and take notice. Barely out of high school, she married George, a cold and condescending New Orleans lawyer. Their twin sons, born soon thereafter, appear to provide one child for each parent to love. George Junior is a bully like his father and physically normal. Gregor was born without arms and legs but with amazing wisdom and a heart of gold. In a dramatic and fateful moment, Anna is forced to choose between saving the life of only one of her boys, then age six. Anna and George's responses to the loss drive the couple further apart. George turns to another woman while Anna seeks relief in losing herself (as well as her savings) at the casino slot machines. These are dark subjects, certainly, but Friedmann's caustic style is hilariously funny. Best is the priceless and unforgettable characterization of Gregor. Grace Fill
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Review

"Expertly, gracefully, Patty Friedmann overlays topographies of loss and desire, reality and delusion, making fiction as strange-and as sad and funny-as truth." -- Kathryn Harrison, author of The Kiss

"In this elegant and unusual novel, [the odds] are very good indeed." -- Deborah Sussman Susser, The New York Times Book Review, Dec 31, 2000

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint Press; First edition, edition (September 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158243087X
• ISBN-13: 978-1582430874
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,635,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patty Friedmann released both the young adult novel Taken Away and the e-novel Too Jewish in late 2010. She also is the author of A Little Bit Ruined, Side Effects, Secondhand Smoke, Eleanor Rushing, and Odds, all currently in print from Counterpoint, and of The Exact Image of Mother (Viking 1991) and Too Smart to Be Rich (New Chapter 1988). In 2001-2002, she was writer-in-residence at Tulane University. Patty has reviewed for Publishers Weekly, Brightleaf, Short Story, and the Times-Picayune; her short stories have appeared in Horn Gallery, Short Story, LaLit, Xavier Review, and elsewhere; and she has had essays in Oxford American, Speakeasy, and New Orleans Review. Stage productions under the direction of Carl Walker are The Accidental Jew and Lovely Rita. She was included in The Great American Writers Cookbook and Christmas Stories from Louisiana in 2003, as well as in the collections My New Orleans in 2005, Intersections in 2006,and Life in the Wake and New Orleans Noir in 2007. In 2009 Oxford American included her Secondhand Smoke with Gone With the Wind, Deliverance, and A Lesson Before Dying as one of the 30 Most Underrated Southern Books. Patty is technically married until Medicare. She reared two children, one of whom is Esme Roberson, and she has three grandchildren, one of whom is Summer Roberson. She lives in New Orleans.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rare Find, November 30, 2000

By 

Jessica Lee (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Odds (Hardcover)

ODDS is an amazing new book by a quirky New Orleans writer. Friedmann's writing is full of humor, wit and charm. The book centers around the life of Anna Riggs Duffy, and the after-effect of a choice that she is forced to make in the face of a tragic swimming pool accident. This book is a true rarity-- it will make you aware of the fact that we are all "dealt a hand" in some way or another, and it sheds light on our struggles to survive the odds that life gives us.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Club Selection of the Month, October 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Odds (Hardcover)

Odds should be the next Oprah selection. If not, you should definately choose it for your book club. It is filled with issues near and dear to everyone's heart: how do you react in a crisis? after a crisis? how much is your marriage worth? how well do you know your spouse? what's is the impact of your spouse's parents on your marriage?

All these issues and more are raised through the tale of a woman and her children. While this book is a quick read, it is definately not a story you will soon forget. Buy one for yourself and one for your best friend. Then sit down and talk about it. Honestly.

5.0 out of 5 stars Odds - Best book I have read in a while, September 6, 2005

By 

Spring Flower (Frederick, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Odds (Paperback)

I stumbled upon Patty Friedmann a few months ago. This is one of those books that you get consumed in and can't but down. I almost felt if I had to read it in one sitting. There are a few quirks about some of her characters(like the two Georges), but it does not take away if, not add to the theme for the book.