Odds: A Novel by Patty Friedmann

by Patty Friedmann

A darkly comic novel about personal triage in the face of life's odds-the odds of genetics, of finding and keeping love, and of rescue and survival. Anna Riggs Duffy and her husband, George, live in New Orleans with their two very different identical twins. One day there is a tragic accident, and Anna can save only one of the boys. In their grief, George turns to another woman while Anna turns to the slot machines in the waterfront casinos. How will she win George back, and does she really want to, anyway? In Odds, Patty Friedmann explores the darker sides of humor, love, and family.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Patty Friedmann is a darkly comic New Orleans novelist whose dozen works include the Amazon perennial bestseller Too Jewish and the celebrated Secondhand Smoke. Her essays, short stories, and reviews have appeared in Newsweek, Publishers Weekly, New Orleans Noir, Short Story, and Oxford American, among other places. A novel titled An Organized Panic and a collection of her stories titled Where Do They All Come From are 2017 releases. Patty has had two husbands, two children, and three grandchildren, and currently lives with an annoying philodendron.

Reviews

[Judy Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Not a moment's hesitation there. Yes everything about this book is at Odds.And it is excellent.
The story is pretty well all told on the front flap. A woman in New Orleans marries a jerk and she marries him for his money. She quietly blames her mother for this because as she sees it her mother is a domineering, interfering hag- who has pressured her into marrying this guy. She - the narrator-has twins with this jerk and to her shock, and ours, one of these twins is born severly deformed. Her jerk husband basically wants her to throw away the deformed twin and keep the good one. She doesn't.
That's all you have to know for now.
Only 2 things I found disjointed.
When the accident happens and she- Ana has to decide which of the twins she'll save-it's a done deal.
She writes exactly one sentence to tell us why she made that choice." I had no choice." That's the sentence- and we never hear about it again. She seems to have no remorse nor does she ever describe the trauma the little boy's death has put her through.
(Frankly- it made me wonder if she wasn't a little bit crazy... but no matter.This woman Patty Friedmann is a great writer- so I forgave her every thing.)
The other oddity in her story was this. No six year old- no matter how brilliant or how precocious would talk like Gregor talks. That threw me off. It was jarring-and at times uncomfortable. (Again-no matter.She is a great writer.)
The story is set in New Orleans- and to her credit- this city permeates the entire book. It's as if New Orleans is a character in itself .
Fine fine writing.
Probably the best book that I've read in a long long time.
I take my hat off to Patty Friedmann. JM

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

not sure what I think about this book

strange

"ODD" like the name LOL

[Sue Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved her voice and humour...sad yet real and uplifting.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing is better than a story written in and about New Orleans. It hardly matters what the book is about if it does something to capture the great laziness and heat and crazy chaos of characters that the city provides. Patty Friedmann is one of the small group of writers in the 1980s and 1990s that very much captured the spirit of Confederate of Dunces, if for nothing more than the undercurrent of spirit that this story captures. It's a story about a bad marriage and fate, a person who tries to cover up fate and the other who has to realize that fate, or odds, are nothing that can be controlled, all centered on a twin born without arms and legs. I've read better, more funny books by Patty Friedmann. But this was well worth reading. I'm sweaty and hot and looking for a drink to take out on the front porch even as I think of the book.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing voice, engaging caustic at times. Much resonance with the title in the novel's themes; even one preposterous development, the introduction of a new romantic interest with the exact same name as her husband, is forgivable, upon reflection, because the novel is titled Odds. Such a thing could happen, although the odds are long.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patty Friedmann is the most wonderfully eccentric and bizarrely greatest author I have ever had the pleasure to come across. Being that she is from my hometown city of New Orleans is a big plus, it certainly makes her novels so much more understandable and entertaining. I have not read anything that she has written that has ever been a disappointment. Five Stars!!!!!

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

sad, sad, sad, and goooood.

[Patty Friedmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aganin by me--but very well reviewed by the New York Times

[Pro]

7/6/2007