Straight Man
1997 novel by Richard Russo
Straight Man (New York: Random House, 1997) is a novel by American writer Richard Russo set at the fictional West Central Pennsylvania University in Railton, Pennsylvania. A campus novel, the book was inspired by Russo's experiences teaching at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Connecticut State University, and Penn State Altoona.
Synopsis
Straight Man chronicles the mid-life crisis of William Henry Devereaux, Jr., the unlikely interim chairman of the English department at the fictional West Central Pennsylvania University in Railton, Pennsylvania. Notable moments include Devereaux hiding in the rafters as the faculty vote on his dismissal, and his threat to kill a duck in the campus pond each day until his department receives a budget. The novel discusses flirtations between faculty and students, satirizes academic scholarship and stardom, and portrays love and health in the season of grace.
Reception
Straight Man was well received by critics, including starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. Tom De Haven of The New York Times praised Russo's use of humor and dialogue, writing,The novel's greatest pleasures derive not from any blazing impatience to see what happens next, but from pitch-perfect dialogue, persuasive characterization and a rich progression of scenes, most of them crackling with an impudent, screwball energy.Booklist named Straight Man one of the best books for adults published in 1997.
Television series
A television series adaptation of the novel, entitled Lucky Hank, was developed at AMC and Tristar Television, with Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein as showrunners and Bob Odenkirk as executive producer in addition to starring. In April 2022, a series order was released. It was scheduled for a second quarter 2023 premiere, with an eight-episode first season.
“Straight Man” enters the record as 1997 novel by Richard Russo. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Straight, novel and Richard can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Straight Man” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Straight, novel and Richard provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7621013. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997, 2022 and 2023.
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This entry incorporates text from “Straight Man” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.