Martha D. reviewed on 8/31/2009 + 36 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I read this book just as I was starting out as a faculty member at an unnamed university in an unnamed health sciences department. The funny thing was, all the stock characters in "Straight Man" were in my department, too! To describe my version of Russo's misadventures would be to jeopardize my life and livelihood (you know how small the academic world can be in any specialty); suffice to say that I was so very, very grateful to have a secret chuckle (and sometimes a very difficult-to-suppress guffaw) thanks to Russo's artful and hilarious satire of life on the faculty of an English department at a small New England liberal arts college.

Mandatory reading for anyone aspiring to make a living in academia, or anyone already suffering through academic life (time distorts horribly during those mandatory faculty meetings)!

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