3.5This was very good but since I read this immediately on finishing Emily, Alone, comparisons were inevitable and I enjoyed Emily, Alone more.That said, he writes beautifully about ordinary people leading ordinary lives but scratches beneath the surface to reveal the hidden interior life. I'll definitely read more O'Nan novels but not so close together.

No other author packs so much into so few words. O’Nan’sstories are always sparse, but taut, filled withundercurrents of thought and feelings.What on the surface seems a simple story, a marriage on theskids, with dissolution looming, is so much more. In a lastditch attempt to spin the wheel, role the dice and possiblybeat the odds, Art and Marion Fowler liquidate their assets,book a room at a plush casino in the most romantic place onearth, Niagara Falls, and hold their breath. Here, they’dgo fo...

I am most likely biased based on a recent personal "adventure" with the misgiving of relationships and the perils of love... If I know what it is. O'Nan wrote, as always, with grace, admirable description, & his near unique ability to make the ordinary extraordinary. All his novels take an everyday event, usually covering a very brief period of time, and paint a picture of a working class, typical, seemingly everyday relationship, day at work, small-town event, etc. I found The Chapter Titles ve...

3.5 Stars rounded down.

The Odds A Love Storyis the first of Stewart O’Nan’s thirteen novels that I have read and I could almost dismiss it, but . . .. My thoughts after the last page were questions about whether or not I had read something worthwhile, even profound. The story is simple to summarize: after 30 years of marriage and two affairs, one acknowledged and one kept secret and looming bankruptcy due to lost jobs and overextending on a house and a kitchen remodel, Art and Marion wager all they have left on Valent...

ODDS OF WRITING AN NYT BEST SELLER: 1 in 220Stewart O’Nan is “the man” with his wildly imaginative, poignantly rendered portrayals and he never fails to astound me. In Emily, Alone, he took an ordinary old woman – the kind of person you pass by without a glance nearly every day – and revealed the extraordinary life that lies right beneath the surface. Now again, he lasers in on an ordinary couple, heavily in debt – Art and Marion Fowler – who retreat to Niagara Fall as a last-ditch effort to sav...

Stewart O’Nan is a master at looking at the ordinary, everyday and everyman and presenting readers with a story that is both beautifully executed and insightful. O’Nan’s latest, The Odds: A Love Story certain doesn’t disappoint. Covering Valentine’s Day weekend in 2006, The Odds tells the story of Art and Marion Fowler, a middle aged couple facing not only bankruptcy, but also the end of their marriage. In an act of desperation the Fowlers liquidate their finances and head to a casino in Niagara...

The odds of surviving going over Niagara Falls in a barrel: 1 in 3 The odds of married people reaching their 25th anniversary: 1 in 6This little book (just 179 pages), The Odds: A Love Story, by Stewart O'Nan is one that I just read for the second time. Anyone who knows me is aware that I love Stewart O'Nan's storytelling, but the first time I read this book years ago, I was less than impressed with it. I'm not sure why I decided to revisit the book but I'm happy I did. I found that this time th...

When it comes to putting American culture under a microscope, few novelists succeed as well as Stewart O’Nan. Time after time, novel after novel, O’Nan has focused tightly on particular microbes of our society—people like you and me, to be blunt about it—and examined the foibles, the follies, and the flaws of the Way We Live. In Songs for the Missing, he turned his attention to the grief of a family whose teenage daughter goes missing; in Last Night at the Lobster, it was the disappointment of t...

Stewart O’Nan’s novel, The Odds -- A Love Story, has many strengths and a few weaknesses, though perhaps the weaknesses are more important than the strengths.This is a book about a couple whose children are out of the house, who have lost everything in the financial meltdown, and who have decided that they will go to Canadian casinos bordering Niagara Falls to try to win enough money to ease their forthcoming bankruptcy proceedings and inevitable divorce.The desperate improbability of this scena...

This was the first O'Nan book I have read. I saw that his novels receive consistently good reviews, and a short novel works great w/ my business travel. He seems to be somewhere in between High Literature and Popular Reading, and the setting and plot are very "contemporary". In that, he reminds me a bit of John Updike - the contemporary, the details, the use of items from that particular time.... OK, I loved the Heart concert! O'Nan really did nail a 50+ couple going to see a band from their you...

I need to first say this: I love Stweart O'Nan. I love him as a 'magnify the details of life and make them wonderful' writer, the classic 'nothing happens but it's well written so who cares' guy. I also had the opportunity to meet him and I think he is the most fantastic person ever. And I thought Wish You Were Here was just great, and The Good Wife changed my whole way of thinking, and the one with the Red Lobster was probably the most understated, poignant read in life.But this latest one seem...

The Odds by Stewart O’NanIf you are looking for a fast-paced, full of excitement, lots of action book, this is not the one for you. If you are looking for a story about a marriage that is ordinary and dying this is it.Sound like a boring read? Well, it is not boring. It is a funny and sad, simple and complex, honest and like real life, love story.Marion and Art have been married for 30 years. Thirty years of working, loving, raising a family, and now falling apart. They have lost jobs, are going...

Unabashedly, I'm declaring the Stewart O'Nan fan club is back in session.In The Odds Stewart O'Nan explores a marriage in crisis. Art and Marion Fowler have lost their jobs, are heading for bankruptcy, about to lose their home, and are on the brink of divorce. In a last ditch effort to salvage something, Art and Marion withdrawal all their remaining savings and book a bridal suite at a Niagara Falls casino. They are telling others it is a second honeymoon. They actually plan to gamble their mone...

My first O'Nan. Unfortunately, I had a lot of difficulties with this book. On the positive and was drawn to the theme. Also enjoyed the chapter headings.Even though I dislike writing negative reviews, even more annoying are negative ratings without justification. So, here goes.Mundane details. "Her phone rang, a quick trill to let her know she had a Facebook message. Usually it was nothing pressing. Distant friends posting something amusing on her wall, a forwarded YouTube video or a link to a s...

I had some issues with this book.1. The main characters, Art and Marion, seem to think that winning a huge amount of money will fix their marriage.2. Many couples divorce because of finances, and this book reinforces the thought that a successful marriage is linked to how much money you have.3. The affairs were dim, and only offered a small glimpse of what they were missing emotionally from the marriage.4. Each chapter started off with a fact about the odds of something happening. These were spo...

The Short of It:A brutally honest look at a marriage in crisis.The Rest of It:In all my years as a reader, I’ve never read an O’Nan novel. Boy, have I been missing out.Art and Marion Fowler ditch their soon-to-be foreclosed home for Niagara Falls, hoping to recoup enough money to save their home and their marriage. The odds are against them, in more ways than one but as they rent the “bridal” suite for one last Valentine’s hurrah, one remains hopeful where the other has totally and utterly given...

As much as I crave the chubby novels with 58 main characters, 130 subplots and a heft that guarantees the reader Popeye sized forearms by page 500 I do find the quiet, small, I’m-not-sure-anything-ever-happens-until-suddenly-it-has-happened novels very impressive. Stewart O’Nan is a master of such novels. He leads the reader through the lives of the people they live next door too with the dexterity of a spellbinder. The Odds is O’Nan’s new novel. It tells the story of Art and Marion Fowler’s mar...

Stewart O'Nan seems to be one of those uniquely talented writers that never has a blockbuster. I have read several of his books and I think I might know why. He is undeniably a very talented writer and I always enjoy his books... to a point. Every book of his that I have read has always been missing something. Sometimes it's better character development, sometimes a better plot. His novels always JUST seem to miss the mark. In this novel I was really enjoying the story and was really thinking th...

I was really shocked to see that people gave this book a 5 star rating. I hope to even the playing field with my one star rating. I think O'Nan wrote this book over a weekend--or maybe just on a Friday night. One reviewer said she almost dismissed the book but then thought O'Nan's other works were so good, that perhaps she was at fault and was missing something more profound. Nothing profound here! I felt the entire time I was reading the book that I had read this book before--a typical "we are