William Henry Devereaux, Jr. is the reluctant chairman of the English department at a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Over the course of a single convoluted week, he threatens to execute a duck, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, discovers that his secretary writes better fiction than he does, and suspects his wife of having an affair with his dean.

Devereaux's reluctance is partly rooted in his character—he is a born anarchist—and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans. In the course of this week, he imagines his wife is having an affair, wonders if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threatens to execute a goose on local television.

All this while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions. In short, Straight Man is classic Russo—side-splitting, poignant, compassionate, and unforgettable.