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Straight Man

A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)

By Richard Russo

(7)

| Paperback | 9780375701900

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Book Description

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 reContinue

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.

Critics

  • Richard Russo - Straight Man

    Click the pic to buy the book. Support this site! Get all your books by clicking on this Amazon link. Are you familiar with the term straight man ? He is normally the butt of the joke, or the one to set it up. The clown gets the laughs while the stra ... (read full critics)

    thebookhaven published on Fri, 10 Sep 2010

  • Straight Man

    Straight Man Richard Russo Vintage Paperback 416 pages June 1998 Amid all the quips and clever comebacks that fly through the halls of the dysfunctional English department at West Central Pennsylvania University in Richard Russo's ( Nobody's Fool) la ... (read full critics)

    curledup published on Tue, 7 Sep 2010

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9780375701900 Paperback $15.95 $10.90 bn.com
$15.95 $10.49 The Book Depository
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