Straight Man: Now adapted for TV as the limited series LUCKY HANK

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

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.

I have enjoyed very much this book, looking forward to see the coming film!However the cover of the book is with a flimsy plastic film that is not properly glued to the paper cover, rolling out! Horrible to see happening to a book that I like it so much!!!

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.

Straight Man is a very funny novel yet an extremely poignant story that shows a high degree of sensitivity to the human condition. The setting is a second or third level state university in Pennsylvania in the 1990s, in April toward the end of the academic year. Henry (Hank) Devereux, Jr. is an English professor and interim chair of his department and is turning 50. A delay in the university's budget from the legislature has exacerbated the conflicts within his dysfunctional department and put Hank in the uncomfortable position of providing the administration with a list of faculty to fire. These conflicts are amplified by a developing mid-life crisis which leads him to question his relationship with his wife, his two adult daughters, his distinguished and rather overbearing academic parents, and particularly the worth of his own academic career.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.