Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook576 pages12 hours
Matters of Chance: A Novel
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Matters of Chance is a glorious, aptivating novel about Morgan and Maude Shurtliff, who fall in love and marry in the years before World WarII. Unable to have children of their own, Morgan and Maude adopt twin girls. The four go home to their beautiful house in the country outside ofNew York City and begin to settle into what they hope will be a long and happy life. When the twins are still young, Morgan is called to serve inWorld War II, leaving Maude to raise her daughters alone. Jeannette Haien has rendered Morgan's war experiences with astonishing detail, just as she has captured the American post-war era with a precision that is unrivaled in recent fiction.
Unavailable
Author
Jeannette Haien
Jeannette Haien is the author of the acclaimed novel The All of It , winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In addition to her career as a writer, Jeannette Haien is well known as a concert pianist and teacher. She and her husband, a lawyer, live in New York City and Connemara, Ireland.
Read more from Jeannette Haien
The All of It: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Matters of Chance: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Matters of Chance
Related ebooks
A Death Divided Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bilgewater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Mother Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNotes from an Exhibition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloudy with a Chance of Murder: A Daniel Jacobus Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stark Beauty of Last Things: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHello Darkness: My doctor said, “Son, you will be blind tomorrow.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Devin Leonard's Neither Snow Nor Rain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue Plate Special: A Novel of Love, Loss, and Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Indigo Girls Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man in the Wooden Hat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Audacity of Goats: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God on the Rocks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solace: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Festival of Earthly Delights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIsabella Stewart Gardner: A Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLast Friends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue Ridge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLast Dance on the Starlight Pier: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Ann Patchett's These Precious Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecurity: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Night Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Lane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seducer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lighthouse Road: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Don't Remember: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Any Bitter Thing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Ticket to Ride: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Homespun Wisdom of Myrtle T. Cribb Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything's Fine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Matters of Chance
Rating: 3.906249875 out of 5 stars
4/5
16 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A compelling, old fashioned, narrative novel rich in detail which stretches from the late 30s to 1960.The characters are complex and richly drawn, albeit a bit too manipulated in certain contexts. The author's language is a definite plus, setting a charming rhythm; when necessary, she simply invents words. Love is a dominant element: between husband and wife, between good friends, between parents and children. The only quibble concerns a stream in culture in which it is the wealthy who command such detailed attention. The decisions the characters come to, the purchases they so blithely make, the choices they have, the sense of a deep, strong, wide foundation permeates the work. Most people do not enjoy such freedom from want: should I purchase this mansion or that, should I send my daughters to Bryn Mawr or Smith (certainly without the unseemly concept of financial aid!). I'll go on Cunard, I'll live on Fifth Avenue and 73rd Street, I'll make sure my daughters approve of the cook I hire; we should all have such good fortune. Which is not to say that the characters are immune from the same fates as those with less resources. All in all, a fine read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a well-written novel that describes WWII and its aftermath for one couple in Ohio who adopt twin girls shortly before Morgan, the husband, leaves to serve in the military. Jeannette Haien fully develops the main characters so their strengths and weaknesses are clearly perceived by the reader. They endure challenges, joy and sorrow, which we share because we know them well by the book's conclusion. The style is reminiscent of the courtly prose of Reynolds Price, and resonates with qualities of honor, empathy and character.