3.5
Straight Man
By Richard RussoPublisher Description
Hilarious and true-to-life, witty, compassionate, and impossible to put down, Straight Man follows Hank Devereaux through one very bad week in this novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls. • Now the AMC Original Series Lucky Hank.
William Henry Devereaux, Jr., is the reluctant chairman of the English department of a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Devereaux's reluctance is partly rooted in his character—he is a born anarchist—and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans.
In the course of a single week, Devereaux will have his nose mangled by an angry colleague, imagine his wife is having an affair with his dean, wonder if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threaten to execute a goose on local television. All this while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions. In short, Straight Man is classic Russo—side-splitting, poignant, compassionate, and unforgettable.
Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.
William Henry Devereaux, Jr., is the reluctant chairman of the English department of a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Devereaux's reluctance is partly rooted in his character—he is a born anarchist—and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans.
In the course of a single week, Devereaux will have his nose mangled by an angry colleague, imagine his wife is having an affair with his dean, wonder if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threaten to execute a goose on local television. All this while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions. In short, Straight Man is classic Russo—side-splitting, poignant, compassionate, and unforgettable.
Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities109 Reviews
3.5
Rmcmahon22
Created 2 months agoShare
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Believable charactersBeautifully writtenDescriptive writingEasy to readFunny writingRealistic settingComicalThought-provoking
tom
Created 2 months agoShare
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Geoff Bigger
Created 3 months agoShare
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Believable charactersCharacters change and growFunny writingRealistic setting
Tadd Tepfer
Created 6 months agoShare
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carolinestclair
Created 9 months agoShare
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