(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.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Recommended to book clubs by 2 of 2 members.