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straight man richard russo empire falls english department william henry henry devereaux nobody fool laugh out loud english professor sense of humor middle age liberal arts years ago ever read hank devereaux highly recommend occam razor lucky jim west central well written
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars GOOD WRITER
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2023
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Very speedy delivery of Richard Russo's comic novel "Straight Man", which is also an AMC tv series "Lucky Hank" starring Bob Odenkirk. I am happy to have the hardcover edition.
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Heavy Theta
4.0 out of 5 stars Too much of a good thing?
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2023
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First off, I really admire Bob Odenkirk, but even though the characters and much of the activity come from Straight Man, this book is much superior to the show, at least so far. That said, I got to admit that the novel’s protagonist’s unyielding dedication to treating the world as burlesque comedy eventually gets a little fatiguing. Still, overall it’s a great read from a real honest to God novelist.
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Max Read
3.0 out of 5 stars "A soap opera comedy that didn't know when to quit"
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2012
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Richard Russo was born July 15, 1949, in Johnstown, New York and grew up in Gloversville. He graduated from The University of Arizona where he earned a Bachelor's degree, a Master of Fine Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy. Russo was a teacher in the English department at Southern Illinois University Carbondale when he wrote his first novel "Mohawk" published in 1986. He eventually migrated to Colby College in upstate New York where he taught until his retirement. Russo's 2001 novel "Empire Falls" received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He has written six other novels and a short story collection as well as collaborated in the production of several films including the adaptation of his own "Nobody's Fool" that starred Paul Newman. Much of Russo's work has been semi-autobiographical, drawing on his life from his upbringing in upstate New York to his time teaching literature at Colby College. Russo was last reported to live in Camden Maine.

"Straight Man" written by Richard Russo is literary fiction of the melodrama/comedy genre. The writing is variably complex with character dialog interlaced with an individual's thoughts. This writing style created numerable problems for the reader in discerning thoughts from dialog. Very careful attention was needed to the placement of quotation marks. The tale is narrated in the first person by the main character.

The book's plot revolves around a group of middle age college professors who find themselves captive to a back woods college in Pennsylvania where, having achieved seniority and tenure, they find no reason to expand their horizons. The deception of their contentment is ultimately exposed as they struggle with the rampant rumors of an impending purge at the university that would reach into the tenured ranks. According to which rumors are listened to, the chairs are being asked or required to draw up lists of faculty in their departments who might be considered expendable. And so with the seeds of discontent planted among the privileged élite, the comedy of their social ineptitude and escapades is fatefully exposed by one William Henry Devereaux Jr. chair of the English Department and comedic `straight man".

There's a lot going on in this novel that vies for the attention of the reader. The people that are introduced seem to come from a swinging door, in and out, of the story. It is at times difficult to remember which characters are which in the scheme of things. I noticed that even Russo recapped the list of characters at times in the narrative as though even he was having trouble remembering them or how they interfaced with each other. William Henry Devereaux Jr. provides the wit for the comedy. His sassy type of humor provides plenty of chuckles. On the overall, however, I didn't care much about most of the characters in the story; they were incredibly shallow though that may have been close to reality - you are presented a collective group of intellectuals that all seem to wear loafers because they can't seem to master the tying of shoes. The composition itself is a fairly long one, about 416 pages or so. At about the half way point, I was getting weary of Devereaux's humor and I just thought; why do good writers not know when to stop writing? In the beginning, I thought the novel was great....by the end I couldn't wait to be finished with it. Comedy in writing is a difficult quest. It needs to be continuously fresh or it's soon not funny anymore. As to the serious side of the narrative, how can you take the musing seriously when it emanates from such a dopey source? It's a reader's dichotomy.

All and all I didn't think this was one of Russo's better works. If he had shortened it up some, it may have had a better chance. Also, I would have liked to see the dialog addressed better in the composition so that the character thoughts and speech were distinguished better; not interlaced.

In my rating system, "Forgettable, "Pleasurable-Not Memorable" and "Memorable" I would rate this novel "Pleasurable-Not Memorable" and would recommend you add it to your reading list.
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Noorda
5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious+
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2023
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This book was hilarious but it also told a darn good story. The characters each had their own quirks and the story was fabulous.
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Shamus St Claire
4.0 out of 5 stars does its job and is rather polite about it
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2023
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a good value as a used purchase, they made a tv show based on this book
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Al
VINE VOICE
3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, well put together narrative that hits too close to home
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2021
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Straight Man is well put together, drawing you along with occasional laugh-out-loud moments. Richard Russo is an accomplished novelist and here captures the dilemma that is unique to English Departments in American universities: the nature of the vocation is to perpetually self-justify it and why your special niche in it is of some value to anybody, anywhere outside of the academy ... and even then. The best part of Russo's tale is that it captures the claustrophobia and absurdity of cloistered small town university staff life, epitomized in the one drunken evening where the entire faculty turns up at the one passable restraurant in the gated suburban academic ghetto where they reside. In all - there are fewer LOL moments than, say Franzen's academic bozos. Unfortunately, it's a perverse and occasionally disturbing read for any of us who have actually spent time in English departments: it isn't just about the brutal corporate cutbacks and new age management talk that are a regular feature of university life. The hurtful bit here is that what appear to be farcical academic characters turn out to be too close to real life, all of us knowing perpetual professorial bores who refuse to grow up and accept that they aren't the cleverest people in the room, who never finished that great book, and then, as Russo's closing comments confirm, expect that they'll be a cadre of family, friends, helpers, students and hanger-oners who will straighten them out. The big question here remains whether we even want to know people like Hank Devereaux Sr or Jr and their colleagues, and that the general bad taste in the mouth remains well after the accounting of his 'career'. Well done, Richard Russo. Point made and taken. No follow up needed.
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John W. Cooke
4.0 out of 5 stars Really Good, but Flattens Toward End
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2021
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I'm torn to say anything negative because the book is so satisfying. But I'm about to ... some slight quibbles. First, as a former long-time academic, Russo very accurately captures some of the absurdity of college teaching, w/o becoming cartoonish. (OK, there are some cartoonish moments, but then again I once watched a full professor drop his pants in a Rank and Tenure Committee Meeting.) The story and the characters are warm-blooded. He portrays the culture less about the silliness of academia than the fallibility of man. It's an easy read by a gifted writer.
That said...
Some tropes are overused. Russo's protagonist refers to himself in third person far too much. He also keeps noting some version of "I'm not an [X] but I can play one" far too often and to little effect.
Finally and most importantly, the novel seems to lose its buoyancy w/ about 20% to go. All the literary and narrative elements remain, but they seem to be running out of gas. I found myself somewhat impatient as I awaited the conclusion.
That conclusion, however, taking place in a small room at a professor's home, is one of the saddest, funniest depictions of academic behavior I've ever read. Russo nailed that ending.
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Top reviews from other countries

MissH
5.0 out of 5 stars Little poke of fun at Middleage Mediocrity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2023
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Loved the book, made me laugh, snortle a little and get very funny looks from the other people on the bus. The blurb on the back doesn’t give the book the credit it deserves, even though you may think the book looks like it would be a snore bore it’s far from it, certainly worth a read.
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Nacho
5.0 out of 5 stars academia-in truth and laughter
Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2023
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Very good writing and with terrific character development. Witty and real. One main protagonist throughout, but many interesting colleagues also. This book takes place in academia, in a small college town in Pennsylvania. The book starts slowly but with each chapter gets both more profound and more interesting.
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Dunse Man
5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious and well written . un- putdownable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2023
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Hilarious and clever in equal measure . An excruciatingly funny and very well crafted novel. The author new to me. Am already downloading my next Russo
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Bluecashmere.
4.0 out of 5 stars More than another campus novel.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2014
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It is easy to pigeon-hole this novel as yet another in the stream of university-based satires. Malcolm Bradbury, with the extremely important and seriously underestimated “The History Man”, seems to me the outstanding contribution to this field in that it looks forward to the retreat from reason and the moral chaos that has infiltrated all higher education in the humanities in the western world. (See Allan Bloom, Harold Bloom et al). From Kingsley Amis’ “Lucky Jim” through David Lodge, Jane Smiley and others, good writers have found fertile stimulus for imaginative writing and particularly humour, in this field. The revived interest in John Williams’ “Stoner” and Stegner’s “Crossing to Safety”, both concerned in part at least with University English Faculties, show interest in the genre is not waning.

Although Russo’s novel never moves outside the campus world, which is the entirety of its setting, the humorous critique of targets within academia already dealt with in many of its predecessors, is far from the heart of the book. That seems to me to lie in the character of Henry Devereaux and his quirky take on his job, his colleagues and the larger issues of human relationships, youth, age and not least that hinterland between the two that he and other key characters inhabit. Undeniably the book is funny, though the humour is very much in the same key throughout, which made this reader at least feel the novel to be longer than its actual length. Where for me the novel most especially scores is in its tone, one of sustained understatement and gentleness, which comes from a larger, if elusive, perspective on life that none of the other characters really grasp. An engaging and humane novel fed by a depth of human sympathy that Stegner’s novel for example seems never to approach.
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H. Lacroix
4.0 out of 5 stars Some really good moments...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2015
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By the time I had reached the second chapter I realised I had already read that book a few years ago but had failed to review it and had also failed to remember anything outside the campus plot( who will they fire, when and how?). This failure to remember I had already read the novel explains why I could never go for 5 stars. It is very well written, with clever and funny moments but the plot is also rather thin which explains how forgetable the story is. I reread the whole thing since I hadn't a clue how it developed and how it ended. It wasn't unpleasant either and I couldn't understand why I hadn't memorised the very funny beginning, the story of Hank's first ever dog. That was really well-done and cleverly woven into a finale that entertained me not a little. This sweet and sour book evokes in the reader I am, the same feelings I have for its main character, a mixture of affection, empathy mingled with a good measure of exasperation.. Because Hank is clearly a very exasperating man, perhaps more so to a female reader than to a male one.The novel is however definitely worth a read. The doings at this small Pennsylvania campus are sure to amuse you even if there is no great lesson to be learnt there. We do indeed grow aggravating to those who have worked with us for a very long time and when people stop to surprise you, the predictable ways in which they behave, think and react does indeed begin to bore and stifle you. Not everybody can be great... especially in the long term.
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