Straight Man

"Straight Man" (New York: Random House, 1997) is a novel by Richard Russo set at the fictional West Central Pennsylvania State University in Railton, Pennsylvania. It is a mid-life crisis tale told in the first person by William Henry Devereaux, Jr., the unlikely interim chairman of the English department. Notable moments include the chairman's hiding in the rafters as the faculty come to a 2/3 vote (when a 3/4 vote was required) for his dismissal, the threat of killing a campus pond duck every day until the department receives a budget, flirtations between faculty and students, satires on academic scholarship and stardom, and love and health in the season of grace. It is rumored that the material for this book came from his experiences teaching at Penn State Altoona, in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Richard Russo is most noted as the author of Empire Falls.