Straight Man

Straight Man is a 1997 novel by the American writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, translated into Chinese by Jiang Xiaomei and published in May 2025 by CITIC Press (Dafang). The title comes from a comedy term for the performer who plays it straight, feeding lines to a partner in absurd situations—exactly the role of the novel's protagonist, Hank. The story takes place at a cash-strapped state university in Pennsylvania. William Henry Devereaux Jr. (known as "Hank"), interim chair of the English department, is about to turn fifty; he never lacks a quip, yet knows he spent twenty years admitting he is unsuited to academic life. It is "the cruelest April," and troubles pour in: his wife Lily is going to Philadelphia to interview for a new job; his philandering father, separated for forty years, plans to return to his mother; his younger daughter's marriage is wobbling after her husband loses his job; his arrogant colleagues argue endlessly over a budget that would cut a fifth of the staff; and his nose is bloodied by a colleague wielding the spiral binding of a loose-leaf notebook. Losing control, he declares on live camera that he will kill one waterfowl in the campus pond every day until the department gets its funding—plunging himself into a ridiculous scandal. Told in first-person deadpan humor, the novel depicts a middle-aged intellectual struggling on all fronts—marriage, family, body, and career—while satirizing university funding shortages, bureaucracy, factional strife, and academic vanity. Critics often compare it to an American take on Fortress Besieged. The book has been repeatedly reprinted and was adapted into the TV series Lucky Hank.