Odds Against Tomorrow

Posted for Baylee Burk

Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich focuses on the statistics of chaotic
events. The majority of the story takes place in Manhattan, New York however, a small
prologue occurs in Chicago. In this short introduction, we meet our protagonist Mitchell
Zurok, a math wizard of sorts. Although great with all degrees of mathematics, he
prefers one subject in particular, statistics. His interest in statistics is fueled by his
fascination with worse case scenarios, or the probability of chaos ensuing. He has a
fear for these events but handles it like never ending dread. This causes him to be over
prepared of disasters, almost always expecting them to occur.  He and the narrator
(currently unnamed) are in a Russian Literature class at the University of Chicago when
the word spreads of a massive earthquake in Seattle. Referred to as the ‘Puget Sound
earthquake’, the narrator describes its’ destruction, making note that the Emerald City
Tower and Columbia Center are demolished during the quake.
As the students learn more about the current disaster, Mitchell notices a fellow
classmate, Elsa, slumped in her seat. His over preparedness allowed him to remain
calm in the commotion, inevitably making him the only person to notice the girl. This
event sticks with him since Elsa has a condition known as Brugada syndrome, which
causes abnormal electroactivity in the heart. The condition can cause heart failure at
any moment, which petrifies Mitchell. He cannot shake the thought of impending
doomed she faces every day, every moment. Her odds of survival are so low, yet she
deals with it so calmly- unphased by the thought. After the incident, she drops out of
college to work on a farm in Maine, which strikes Mitchell as bizarre. He finishes up his
degree and receives a job at Fitzsimmons and Sherman in Manhattan.
Awhile after the disaster, the talk of corporate losses find its way to the media
outlets. Families of deceased employees that worked in the skyscrapers of Seattle are
suing the employers for negligence. This begs the question, ‘are employers responsible
for the deaths of their employees in the case of natural disaster?’. The courts decide
‘yes’ and many corporate entities suffer immense financial loss. This ruling becomes
important to Mitchell as he starts his second corporate job at FutureWorld.
FutureWorld is a new organization that is a direct result of the incident in Seattle.
The director and founder, Alec Charnoble, has a meeting with Mitchell to discuss why
his current employer needs a contract with FutureWorld. His explains how they predict
chaos for their clients and how a legal loophole around liability laws in the case of
disasters prevents the company from being sued for negligence as the corps of Seattle.
This intrigues Mitchell, a company based of disaster predictions, constantly running
statistics on earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear war...it was too good to be true.
After further discussion, Alec decides to offer Mitchell a job, considering he was
able to talk disaster scenarios with him and understood the mathematics behind
disaster probability. He accepts and begins working his dream job, gaining the company
fifty clients in just a couple months. In the midst of this, Elsa begins writing Mitchell. She
talks about how free she feels on the farm away from modern society. Mitchell and she
have very different points of view on the matter however. He cannot imagine being so
far from a hospital with her condition, but she seems unconcerned with this. She often
disregards her fears while Mitchell actively exercises his. This is as far as I’ve gotten in
the story.

Although a Cli-FI story, the book does not seem very focus on the environmental
factors that cause disasters to happen. The climax of the book seems to be leading
toward a disaster taking place in Manhattan, maybe a massive flood based on the
cover, but I don’t think it will relate the disaster to current climate concerns. The focus
seems to be on Mitchell’s love/fear of disaster predicting and exploring the relationship
between fear and curiosity. Mitchell claims they go hand in hand since for him, his fears
compels him to do research on disasters. Elsa however, believes that our fears limit our
curiosity in the way that someone wishing to experience freefalling will not attempt
skydiving out of fear. I think this clash of ideals will stay a theme in throughout their
conversation with one another and it may bring them together when disaster hits.