Some New Material

In Sean Michaels’s The Wagers, Theo Potiris is thirty-six, working at his family’s grocery store, Provisions K, and trying to make it as a comedian. When the novel opens, he’s surrounded by family: his two older siblings, their spouses and children, and his mother, Minnie, the family’s matriarch, an almost saintly woman with endless reserves of love for her family and community. Theo’s would-be girlfriend, Lou, has left for a months-long retreat in the Moroccan desert, so he writes her letters and carries out his weekly ritual of placing a bet at the racetrack and, depending on the results, performing stand-up at a local comedy club.

Two events alter this comfortable routine: Minnie dies of a heart attack in her sleep, to be found smiling in her chair. And Hanna, Theo’s precocious twelve-year-old niece, wins $4 million on a bet. This prompts hand-wringing over the store — should they modernize or sell? — and reflections on the nature of luck. Why, Theo...