More words to live by

From Writing & Selling Your Novel, by Jack Bickham.

Notice, too that conflict is not the same as adversity.

...a reader needs to feel more than sympathy for a character. Adversity may build sympathy, but it will never build admiration or concern.

[your character] can't fight adversity. He has no chance. Adversity is blind and will come and go by luck, no matter what [he] does or doesn't do. In a universe of adversity, nothing makes sense-nothing [he] does makes any difference.

It's very difficult to hold a reader with nothing but blind fate playing all the cards. The story may be exciting in places, but it tends to be meaningless.