Richard Russo
Paperback | Pages: 391 pages Rating: 4.02 | 23574 Users | 2411 Reviews
Identify Books As Straight Man
| Original Title: | Straight Man |
| ISBN: | 0375701907 (ISBN13: 9780375701900) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | William Henry Devereaux, Jr |
| Setting: | Pennsylvania(United States) |
Description During Books Straight Man
In this uproarious new novel, Richard Russo performs his characteristic high-wire walk between hilarity and heartbreak. Russo's protagonist is William Henry Devereaux, Jr., 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 and true-to-life, witty, compassionate, and impossible to put down.
List Regarding Books Straight Man
| Title | : | Straight Man |
| Author | : | Richard Russo |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 391 pages |
| Published | : | June 9th 1998 by Vintage (first published January 1st 1997) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Humor. Contemporary. Novels. Academic. Academia. Literature. Literary Fiction |
Rating Regarding Books Straight Man
Ratings: 4.02 From 23574 Users | 2411 ReviewsEvaluate Regarding Books Straight Man
Meh. 1.5. I finished it. Barely. That's about all I can say for the book. I bought it for $4 from The Book Barn a while back--after all, I should really read something other than science fiction or fantasy sometimes, right? The problem is, whenever I go outside my book comfort zone, my success rate tends to be fairly low. Ironically, when I went back to The Book Barn today (looking to get rid of the darn thing), they wouldn't take it back! I brought back about 20 books and 25 dvds--and some ofThe novel is droll, dry, wry, witty. An endless stream of one-liners and punchlines that roll off the tongue of William Henry Devereaux, Jr., an English professor at a state college in central Pennsylvania. Having read Empire Falls, the protagonist in this novel is more proactive, decisive and optimistic. I enjoy the good natured wit of Russo and the way that he rounds off his story lines like a refreshing ellipse. His characters are fully drawn and unique individuals with eccentricities and
"What ails people is never simple, and William of Occam, who provided mankind with a beacon of rationality by which to view the world of physical circumstance, knew better than to apply his razor to the irrational, where entities multiply like strands of a virus under a microscope"Straight Man is the fourth novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, Richard Russo. William Henry Devereaux Jnr, (Hank) at almost fifty, is interim chairman of the English department at the (chronically
This reading group pick is Richard Russo's fourth novel. William Henry Devereaux, Jr is the chairman of the English department at a small Pennsylvania university. Campus politics, budget issues and changing mores should make Will's job stressful but he appears to be above it all with his witty, carefree but rebellious manner. Is he though? He wanted to be a novelist yet only has one slim book from his younger years to his credit. He has huge daddy issues, a detachment from his grown daughters,
After looking over numerous reviews of this book I found the common problem the one and two star reviewers had with Straight Man was either a dislike of the main character or they didn't understand the humor. I'm not sure how much this should worry me? I found that my own sense of humor is eerily similar to the main characters and was laughing consistently throughout the novel.The title refers to a straight man in a comedy. One who sets the scene for a great punchline. I can easily tell you a
I dont want to give Richard Russos Straight Man one star, but I feel I must. After the first fifty pages or so, I started to dislike it. The more I read, the more I disliked it. Now that Ive finished all 391 mostly painful pages, Im irritated that I allowed myself to get distracted by this frustrating book. I dont feel as if I learned anything or was even sufficiently entertained. A friend recommended this book to me, telling me it was a story of academic dysfunction, a state we are both
3.5 stars.This had parts I found interesting, some very funny scenes, some compassionate, and some where I tuned out. Russo's humor is wry and masculine. Often jokes are made at the expense of others (students, females, academic colleagues, and academia alike are targeted), but also self-deprecating. I adore him, but will probably always compare all his works to Empire Falls, a tough one to live up to. IMO.
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