Straight man

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Russo, Richard, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Russo, Richard
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Russo, Richard	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Russo, Richard	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Russo, Richard	4-week checkout	Due 05-19-2024

First published in hardcover by Random House in 1997.
In the course of one week, Henry Devereaux, Jr., a once-promising novelist and now the middle-aged chairman of a university English department in hilarious disarray, faces an angry colleague, a curvaceous adjunct trying to seduce him, and a goose on local television--all while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Not my thing, but I can see why others might like it more submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 2, 2015, 10:58am This was... interesting. What it did really well was present a story based on a character who is pretty much unlikeable. That really made it hard to read. He wasn't much liked by his coworkers, his neighbors, or necessarily even his family. He has a position of authority, but pretty much only because the rest of his academic department hate each other so much that they figured that he was incompetent and couldn't do much harm, and then he proved them wrong and turned out to use the position, so now they mostly dislike him even more.

And it's interesting, because we see why he is the way he is, we learn a fair amount about how he got this way, and he generally makes sense. It's very well written, and it's kind of an interesting storyline, and it really does a good job of bringing us into the worldview of someone who is (at least for me) very much unlike me and unlike pretty much everyone else I ever read about in books.

But a whole book about an unlikeable character is hard to read. It was hard to stick with for that reason. Maybe if I knew more people like him in real life, then it would have had more intrinsic appeal?

Anyway, that left the book at 3 stars for me, but YMMV (your mileage may vary), and I can see why it might easily get higher ratings from others.

Humorous book submitted by dicencal on July 2, 2017, 10:41am The protagonist for this novel is the chair of a small English department at an institution that is undergoing budget cuts. He perversely refuses to satisfy any of his constituents - i.e., the administration, faculty, or students - by telling any of them what they want to hear. That's part of what makes this story compelling, though: he's not a real hero, but he has a distinct moral compass. The main character seems unlikeable, but that's largely because he withholds the easy answers that people want to hear. I found this book extremely satisfying and funny.