Straight Man - A Review

Russo, Richard. Straight Man. New York: Random House, 1997. xvii + 391 pages.

Richard Russo is a well-known novelist, author of Nobody’s Fool (1993) (the movie version of which, with Paul Newman and Bruce Willis, I have seen), Empire Falls (2001), and Bridge of Sighs (2007) (which I’m planning to read). Empire Falls won the Pulitzer Prize. Maybe I should be reviewing Empire Falls, which I read in June and July of this year. But Straight Man is my most recent Russo read, and it is a good one.

The hero, viewpoint character, and narrator of Straight Man is Henry William Devereaux, Jr., known to one and all, except his mother, as Hank. Hank has the misfortune to be an English professor at a university in Western Pennsylvania, and is, during the time the action of the novel occurs, the acting chairman of the English department. I say “misfortune” because Hank is the son of a famous English professor, and comparisons with his father all seem to be to Henry, Sr.’s advantage. The father has written many books; the son has published one slim novel. The father has taught at Columbia and other famous, top-rank universities; the son is at West Central Pennsylvania University. (As a graduate of Eastern Washington University, and a sometime visitor to Northern Colorado University, I understand just how much academic dignity is stripped away by a geographic modifier.)

Hank has a few problems. His wife is away visiting her father. His daughter Julie is having marital problems, which come to a climax when she comes to Hank’s house with a black eye. The English faculty want to hold a recall election to strip Hank of his chairmanship. The university is planning to fire a number of faculty, and Hank may be forced to come up with a list of candidates for the axe. And Hank’s creative writing class isn’t doing a lot of writing, and what there is isn’t all that creative.

Some time or other I read that a successful character should, on the one hand, be a distinct individual, a character and not a cartoon, but that, on the other hand, that character should represent aspects of life that a reader could identify with. I guess Richard Russo read that advice, too, because he applies it very successfully. Not only Hank Devereaux, but his father, his mother, his daughter, her husband, the members of the English department, and other members of Hank’s community, are clearly and succinctly drawn, standing out as real individuals. At the same time, I found plenty to identify with in Hank – his tendency to smart-ass remarks, for example. Early in the book that one earns Hank a nose punctured by the binding of a spiral notebook.

I should point out that this is a very funny book. The scene where Hank is speared by the notebook is great. The restaurant scene, when his tablemate manages to insult half of the patrons in the place, all of whom have some relationship with Hank brings out the claustrophobic quality of small communities. And the scene when Hank decides to eavesdrop on the faculty meeting considering his recall is priceless. And then there's the duck.

So what can I say? Richard Russo limns great characters, he builds good scenes, he has a terrific ear for dialogue and a wonderful sense of humor, and his people are real people, people with whom one can identify, even if their foibles are a touch exaggerated. If you haven’t read any good fiction lately, Straight Man is an excellent place to start.