Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Russo, Richard - Jon Saari (review date spring 1998)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Jon Saari (review date spring 1998)

SOURCE: Saari, Jon. Review of Straight Man, by Richard Russo. Antioch Review 56, no. 2 (spring 1998): 240.

[In the following review, Saari praises the rich comic narrative of Straight Man.]

The running joke here is that the university is a three-ring circus of clowns and buffoons who provide an unending supply of hilarity. In the hands of Russo's William Henry Devereaux, Jr., or Lucky Hank to friends and enemies alike, the narrator [of Straight Man], life at the backwater West Central Pennsylvania University creates an unnerving anticipation of disaster. In a time of frenzy and wrath, Henry Devereaux, the interim head of the English department, finds attention directed toward him and his supposed hit list, the result of a 20 percent faculty cutback mandated by the campus CEO, Dickie Pope. Devereaux's colleagues are often vociferous in registering their contempt for him, but Devereaux is...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. David Montrose (review date 6 March 1987)
   2. Richard Eder (review date 13 September 1988)
   3. Hilma Wolitzer (review date 30 October 1988)
   4. James McConkey (review date 27 November 1988)
   5. Betty Abel (review date April 1989)
   6. John Clute (review date 9-15 June 1989)
   7. E. Annie Proulx (review date 30 May 1993)
   8. Howard Frank Mosher (review date 6 June 1993)
   9. Wendy Smith (essay date 7 June 1993)
   10. Gail Caldwell (review date 27 June 1993)
   11. Roz Kaveney (review date 30 July 1993)
   12. Steve Brzezinski (review date winter 1994)
   13. M. R. Montgomery (essay date 26 January 1995)
   14. Scott Bradfield (review date 25 July 1997)
   15. Zoë Ingalls (essay date 8 August 1997)
   16. Thomas Curwen (review date 21 September 1997)
   17. Michael Lee (review date 26 September 1997)
   18. Ron Charles (review date 6 October 1997)
   19. Stanley Kauffmann (review date 30 March 1998)
   20. Jon Saari (review date spring 1998)
   21. John Simon (review date 6 April 1998)
   22. Rita D. Jacobs (review date autumn 1998)
   23. Ron Charles (review date 10 May 2001)
   24. Dan Cryer (review date 27 May-2 June 2001)
   25. James Marcus (review date June 2001)
   26. D. T. Max (review date 10 June 2001)
   27. Michael Prager (review date 27 June 2001)
   28. Don McCleese (review date July 2001)
   29. Bill Broun (review date 6 July 2001)
   30. Bruce Allen (review date 5 August 2001)
   31. Edward Hower (review date October 2001)
   32. Joseph Epstein (review date January 2002)
   33. Rita D. Jacobs (review date spring 2002)
   34. Kristen Case (review date July-August 2002)
   35. Peter Heinegg (review date 21 October 2002)
   36. Tom Deignan (review date November 2002)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright