My Review | Straight Man

Straight Man by Richard Russo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this novel. Now that I’m employed at a university, I took extra interest in “Straight Man” by Richard Russo. I thought this book was hilarious. The book is set on a campus at West Central Pennsylvania State University. Russo told the New York Times “whenever you have a ‘southern’ or a ‘northern’ or an ‘eastern’ or a ‘western’ before an institution’s name, you know it will be wildly underfunded.” The pivotal scene of the book is when an English professor … SPOILER ALERT … who has been placed in charge of the department, picks up a goose and – in front of television cameras – threatens to kill a duck a day until his department gets its funding. That was an awesome scene. (I’m not really a good book reviewer; I’m just reading the NYT review and writing down things.) Weird subplot … Hank, the lead character, is plugged up. Has trouble peeing. It’s mentioned a lot. Lots of great characters with a strong helping of hijinks. I’m looking forward to reading, Empire Falls, the book written by Russo that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002.

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