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Straight Man: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
William Henry Devereaux, Jr., spiritually suited to playing left field but forced by a bad hamstring to try first base, is the unlikely chairman of the English department at West Central Pennsylvania University. Over the course of a single convoluted week, he threatens to execute a duck, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, discovers that his secretary writes better fiction than he does, suspects his wife of having an affair with his dean, and finally confronts his philandering elderly father, the one-time king of American Literary Theory, at an abandoned amusement park.
Such is the canvas of Richard Russo's Straight Man, a novel of surpassing wit, poignancy, and insight. As he established in his previous books—Mohawk, The Risk Pool, and Nobody's Fool—Russo is unique among contemporary authors for his ability to flawlessly capture the soul of the wise guy and the heart of a difficult parent. In Hank Devereaux, Russo has created a hero whose humor and identification with the absurd are mitigated only by his love for his family, friends, and, ultimately, knowledge itself.
Unforgettable, compassionate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Straight Man cements Richard Russo's reputation as one of the master storytellers of our time.
- Listening Length14 hours and 12 minutes
- Audible release dateSeptember 5, 2003
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB0000D1BXI
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 14 hours and 12 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Richard Russo |
Narrator | Sam Freed |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com Release Date | September 05, 2003 |
Publisher | Random House Audio |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B0000D1BXI |
Best Sellers Rank | #17,887 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #144 in Small Town & Rural Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #188 in Humorous Fiction & Satire #495 in Humorous Fiction |
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"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.
More broadly, the author captures the securities, but more so the insecurities, that are a part of living and working in such an insular academic setting. All have achieved a secure position through either political maneuvering or, in the case of Hank, cashing in on a long since dissipated notoriety for a work of fiction. Ironically, the security of tenure gives them the means to assiduously guard their turf and freely exchange caustic barbs when threatened, or otherwise. What they cannot escape is the unsettling realization that they have reached their academic limits with few prospects. It's hardly surprising that the anxieties and demands of the college find their way into their domestic lives as manifested by affairs, divorces, and reckless competitiveness.
But Hank Devereaux is the author's main focus. He is an amused, detached kind of guy, irritating to most to a greater or lesser degree, including his colleagues, his wife Lily, and his daughters. Perhaps it is his general outward indifference that has allowed him to navigate these perilous waters, especially the temptations, better than most, which in the end is not entirely lost on the others.
The book is probably more an amused, imagined look at college academia than one of hard-nosed reality. The quips, barbs, developments, and shenanigans are entertaining and at times somewhat comic, but do sometimes strain belief.
Top reviews from other countries
The two threads of this novel are the window that it provides on academic life and the second window that it opens on the travails - mental, emotional and physical - of reaching middle age. Both are approached through humor and biting satire, but with an element of tenderness for both the individuals and institutions that are the objects of Hank's concerns. Henry Devereux, Jr., himself, is a very well-crafted character - someone you will likely feel that you know intimately by the end of the novel.
Straight Man is a good example of a modern `campus novel' Its humor and elegant prose resonate with that of Changing Places, by David Lodge, and The History Man, by Malcolm Bradbury - both late 1960s/early 1970s representatives of this genre. Its humor and trenchant portrayal of academic characters and politics also echo with Lorenzostein, by Mary Smetley, a more recent magical-realistic treatment of these issues in academia in the 1980s and 1990s.
A must read for anyone interested in the `campus novel' genre and for those readers who would enjoy a humorous, but sensitive, treatment of mid-life issues.