Someone posted on a Goodreads book review the phrase "the late Richard Russo". I just about had a stroke. Russo is my favorite living (?) writer, and to think that he is gone, and also that I didn't even hear about it, was a stunning blow. A quick check revealed that he is not dead. Whew!

My initial impression as I got into Straight Man was that both Russo's main character, Hank Devereaux, and the overall setup seemed Updikean. I love John Updike, but when I read Russo, I want Russo, not Updike. However, as I progressed further, I became certain that the similarities to Updike were unintentional and actually more likely imagined than real. And the novel's overall quality is A+.

Russo wrote Straight Man in 1997. It has no connection with any of his other novels. Hank Devereaux is a 49-year-old English Professor at West Central Pennsylvania University in Railton. His wife Lily, who teaches at the local high school, is just about the only person he can't fool - she sees through him like glass, and he's pretty much resigned himself to being honest with her.

"One of the nice things about our marriage, at least to my way of thinking, is that my wife and I no longer have to argue everything through. We each know what the other will say, and so the saying becomes an unnecessary formality. No doubt some marriage counselor would explain to us that our problem is a failure to communicate, but to my way of thinking we've worked long and hard to achieve this silence, Lily's and mine, so fraught with mutual understanding."

However, he seems to be incapable of being serious with anyone else. Every time he finds himself in a situation in which he is being criticized or threatened or questioned directly, he responds with a punch line instead of the truth. This drives everyone around him crazy. No one can get a straight answer from him. He turns criticism into humor, even when it's not in his best interest. Along the lines of Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H.

"Even twenty years ago people were saying what an arrogant prick you were. Rudy said, Don't worry, he'll grow up. Pups are supposed to mess themselves. Swat him on the ass with a rolled-up newspaper a couple times he'll get the message." ...The thing is, you're worse now than you were then. And you think you're just being frisky. Fifty years old and you're still shitting on the carpet and thinking it's clever."

And a bit later: "You are the physical embodiment of the perversity principle... Fake left, go right. Fake right, go left. Keep everybody in suspense, right? What's Hank going to do? If you have to fuck yourself over to surprise them, so be it."

Russo always amazes me with his insight into people. "I hate to provoke guilt... One of my few parental rules has been to try not to inspire or encourage guilt in our daughters. Of course it's been easy to play good cop, married to Lily, who grew up... Catholic... She outgrew its orthodoxy without being able to surrender its methods - a subtle blend of bribery, guilt provoking, and Skinner-esque behaviorism - strategies my wife has used to combat my own encouraged Emersonian self-reliance theory of child rearing, or anarchy, as Lily refers to it. I suspect our daughters survived childhood by cheerfully ignoring both Lily and me rather than trying to reconcile our disparate advice."

When you reflect on Russo's characters, you realize that he has a solid belief, if not in people's goodness, then in their value. He portrays them with all their flaws and idiosyncrasies, yet still manages to make them relatable and endearing. His writing is a masterclass in character development and storytelling, and Straight Man is no exception. It's a hilarious and poignant novel that will keep you entertained from start to finish.

So very funny but so very long.....

What could possibly go wrong when a group of middle-aged college English professors find themselves in a rather unusual situation? Enter Hank Devereaux the second, the son of a brilliant yet overly sexed novelist father/professor. Hank is trying to come to terms with what he believes is his place in the world of lesser-known academia. What follows is an often hilarious novel, especially when Hank threatens to kill a duck for each day the college's budget remains in limbo.

The characters in this story may not be the most charming, but they are undeniably witty and erudite. In fact, any English department might secretly wish they had professors like this motley crew!

The duck incident sets off a downward spiral for Hank. He experiences a cancer scare, gets arrested, shares a hot tub with an attractive person, and is present as his daughter's marriage seems to fall apart.

While this book is filled with many laugh-out-loud scenes, it also offers the reader a front-row seat to the anxieties of middle age. It reminds us that perhaps the dream we had as a young person may never fully come to fruition.

Overall, this novel is a humorous and thought-provoking exploration of the lives of middle-aged academics.

Hilarious!!!!

I can vividly imagine the guy from "House" taking on this role in the film.

Anyway, Russo is simply so funny, with his satirical and wonderful style.

You will have a complex relationship with the main character, both loving and hating him because he will remind you of yourself in numerous ways.

Fabulous.

It really bothers me a great deal when people have such extremely high expectations of a novel.

IT IS FICTION, people! It isn't supposed to mimic real life precisely.

The characters aren't supposed to seem overly realistic.

The story is meant to transport you to another era and location, perhaps make you laugh out loud, or shed tears, or get angry.

But it isn't supposed to make you exclaim, wow, that was so realistic, just like real life, just like the dull, real life.

Come on.

Do we really have to be that arrogant?

Let's see any of you attempt to write a novel.

Richard Russo's novel Straight Man is truly a gem that is filled with wry humor, making it an absolute pleasure to read.

William Henry Devereaux Jr., affectionately known as Hank, is the chair of the English department in a not-so-prestigious state university. At the age of 50, he is compelled to take a long, hard look at his life and figure out what he truly desires for his future.

The people around Hank often find him exasperating. He seems to have a wisecrack or a cheeky comeback for almost every situation. However, beneath this facade lies a man who is suffering, unsure of himself and the choices he has made in life. To add to his woes, he has a rather embarrassing problem - he can't pee.

The book is filled with such memorable quotes. For instance, “Say I told you so. They're the four most satisfying words in the English language. You could rupture something trying to keep them inside you.” While this made me chuckle, I've learned that it's not something you should say directly to someone, especially if it's your spouse or child. It's much safer to say it to your friends about the mistakes your immediate family members have made.

Another powerful quote is “It’s not an easy time for any parent, this moment when the realization dawns that you’ve given birth to something that will never see things the way you do, despite the fact that it is your living legacy, that it bears your name.” I can vividly remember the first time my dad and I had a political disagreement. His jaw dropped, and even towards the end of his life, he couldn't understand how I could have such different opinions on so many things.

At some point, Hank realizes that he \\"is a man in trouble\\" and that something has to change. And indeed, something does change, albeit somewhat.

This story unfolds at a brisk pace, filled with great dialogue, interesting characters, and a palpable energy. I wholeheartedly recommend that you take this journey with Hank and experience the joys and sorrows of his life.

There’s more here than meets the eye.

For all of its delightful ridiculousness, the book reveals something absolutely true and incomprehensible about the internal confusion of middle-aged men. They remember the bombast of youth, that exuberant and confident time when they felt they could take on the world. But now, they are gradually becoming their aging fathers, a process that brings a mix of emotions and uncertainties.

There is no dignity in this book, and no one really seeks virtue. It’s a raw and unfiltered portrayal of human nature. However, surprisingly, some characters stumble into it despite themselves. In their flawed and often chaotic lives, moments of unexpected virtue emerge, adding a touch of complexity and depth to the story.

This book doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It presents a realistic and sometimes uncomfortable look at the lives of middle-aged men, making readers reflect on their own experiences and the inevitable passage of time.

I've been having a strong desire to read Russo for a really long time. It all started nearly ten years ago when I first got into reading and would come across copies of Empire Falls in places like Goodwill.

I'm truly glad that I finally did. What I got was a delightfully funny and deeply touching story about a college professor in Pennsylvania. He lives his life as the leaning-chaotic-evil demiurge of the school. The whole atmosphere of the story was very cozy.

There was a sublime balance between the dialogue and our protagonist's contemplations. Every little detail was explored thoroughly, leaving no stone unturned. It's quite refreshing how everything in this book ends up being like a Chekov's Gun, but not in a overly dramatic way. It's more like in a fully fleshed-out world that Russo weaves with such ease.

The book was extremely easy to read and was a great deal of fun. Towards the end, when I read back some of the seemingly unadorned prose, it kind of reminded me of my literary crush, William Gass, the prose-gardener. It was just some of the sentences, but still, it had that similar charm.

I didn't have any affinity for this book at all.

The protagonist was truly a smug individual. I wish I could use a more refined term, but "prick" seems to describe him perfectly. Around page 219, I was on the verge of giving up because I found him so unlikable. However, in the end, I persevered until the book reached its unsatisfactory conclusion.

The epilogue, where Russo attempts to explain how everything turns out, was excruciating as I simply didn't care about any of the characters or their fates. Moreover, there was a certain self-satisfied smugness in the writing that made it even more of a painful read.

I didn't like any of the characters in this book. I also didn't appreciate the little literary tricks that Russo employed. For example, one character has every sentence end with a question mark to convey her insecurity, but this quickly becomes tiresome. When even her written communications are presented in this way, it stretches the bounds of my suspension of disbelief. There are several such examples, all equally frustrating.

Russo's protagonist is nothing more than a smart-ass jerk who believes he is cleverer than everyone else. He abandons his poor secretary to handle his work commitments, leaves his wife to deal with their children, and leads an irresponsible life, sneering at others while not really accomplishing anything notable or worthwhile. At the end of the book, there is no redemption; we are left with the same old nonsense that has been going on throughout and are expected to accept it as some sort of resolution.

Even as a satire on academic life, this book failed to capture my interest. I have read many excellent and engaging treatments of academic life, such as Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, C.P. Snow's The Masters, and Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels. There is absolutely nothing to recommend this book. I discovered it on a list of lost American classics, but perhaps this book should remain lost.

Ahhh.

Never has a book made me feel so good about not going into academia.

William "Hank" Henry Devereaux, Jr. is the beleaguered head of an intensely competitive English department in a deteriorating liberal arts college.

Over the course of the novel's four days, absolute chaos ensues. While his wife is away, Hank's department descends into madness, his daughter's marriage falls apart, his nose is mangled by a coworker, and he even threatens to kill a goose on local television.

Oh, and there's a drunken incident involving a hot tub, and another scene where our hero gets stuck in a heating vent while spying on a department meeting. In short, it's excellent seriocomical fiction.

Why did I give it three stars? The characters, especially Hank, were just a touch too cynical for my liking. This is a book that might resonate with me more when I'm middle-aged myself. Eh.

I was extremely excited when I initially discovered this in the "New Additions" section of the Chicago Public Library's ebook collection. I thought I had randomly come across Pulitzer winner Richard Russo's latest title mere minutes after it was announced on the website, and thus was going to be able to check it out before anyone else. However, in reality, although it was new to their collection, the book itself dates back to 1997 and is actually one of the more beloved works of his entire career.

It is a gentle character-based comedy about life among academes in a small college town. Similar to Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys and Jane Smiley's Moo, it takes on the self-reflective topic of writing professors on a closed campus (usually a no-no in writing guides for beginners) and embraces it wholeheartedly. It truly delves into the quirky little details specific to academic life while spicing it up with enough interesting plot developments to make it far more than the typical piece of self-indulgent drivel that the "writing professor writing about writing professors" subgenre usually yields.

Of course, in this case, things are greatly aided by the main character being such a fascinatingly complex and charming curmudgeon. He is an aging fiction professor who has long since accepted his fate at the third-tier, insignificant college where everyone gossips and backstabs. In his very mild way, he has decided to rebel against the machine that is campus pettiness, combining a world-weary attitude with occasional bursts of M*A*S*H-style outrageous actions. This includes his habit of playing the fool whenever in front of the local media just to stir up more trouble for his superiors on the school's board of directors.

I usually have a low tolerance for this kind of metafictional material, but again, like Wonder Boys and Moo, this is a rare exception. Specifically because Russo takes the time and energy to construct a wonderfully entertaining and sometimes legitimately thrilling story set in this environment, rather than the usual endless whiny rants about middle-aged men having affairs with their 19-year-old students. It comes highly recommended and makes me even more excited than I already was to finally tackle his Pulitzer-winning Empire Falls for the CCLaP 100 later this year.

Please provide the article that needs to be rewritten and expanded so that I can assist you further.

I read this book a couple of years ago and registered my thoughts in my drop box. Just recently, I read a review by one of my "goodreads" friends, which reminded me that I had read this great story. So here are my thoughts that I recorded then (before I was a member of "goodreads").

Mr. Russo continues to ascend on my personal list of favorite authors. This is the story of William Henry (Hank) Devereaux, Jr., a middle-aged acting chairman of a college English department. Hank is experiencing a midlife crisis. He is either afraid or excited that his wife might be having an affair. His daughter's marriage is falling apart. He is lusting after several women. He was stabbed in the nose by an irate co-worker. He may cause people to be fired or be fired by the university himself. He manages to threaten a goose on live TV, get photographed naked in a hot tub with a TV personality, spend a night in jail, and pass a few hours trapped in the ceiling above his colleagues. And, oh yeah, he can't seem to pee.

As always, with Russo, this is a character-driven novel. It is set over a week's time when Hank's world delightfully unravels. Mr. Russo has the ability to make me laugh out loud. This is truly a great piece of work.

I truly relished Russo's dry wit in this particular work.

His unique brand of humor had me chuckling and entertained throughout.

The way he presented his ideas with that understated yet clever humor was simply brilliant.

It added an extra layer of enjoyment to the overall experience.

I found myself constantly engaged, eagerly anticipating what he would say next.

His dry wit was like a refreshing breeze in a stuffy room, bringing a sense of lightness and levity.

I liked it a great deal and would highly recommend this work to anyone who appreciates a good dose of intelligent and humorous writing.

It's definitely one that I will be revisiting in the future.

Overall, Russo's dry wit in this one was a real gem that made the reading experience truly unforgettable.