Amy's review
Straight Man: A Novel
by Richard Russo
Amy's review
Straight Man: A Novel by Richard Russo
Amy's review
rating:
William Henry Devereaux Jr. (Hank) is the chair of a bickering English department at West Central Pennsylvania University, beset with budget problems and long-standing personal grievances. It sounds like sort of a dry premise, but the events that unfold over the course of the book (which I don't think takes place in much more than a week or two) are surprisingly funny. And yet it's not a comic novel - the story is told with great sincerity.
The first thing I'll say is that, having read Russo's Empire Falls just a couple months ago, I found Straight Man to be entirely different. On reflection, it's clear that they're by the same author - the writing style, the characterization, some of the humor. But in many other ways they are nothing alike. Empire Falls sucked me in from the very beginning, but it took a bit longer for Straight Man to grab me. It was interesting and well written, but it wasn't until about halfway through that I suddenly discovered how at...more
The first thing I'll say is that, having read Russo's Empire Falls just a couple months ago, I found Straight Man to be entirely different. On reflection, it's clear that they're by the same author - the writing style, the characterization, some of the humor. But in many other ways they are nothing alike. Empire Falls sucked me in from the very beginning, but it took a bit longer for Straight Man to grab me. It was interesting and well written, but it wasn't until about halfway through that I suddenly discovered how at...more
