Straight Man
by Richard Russo
List Price: $13.00
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0375701907
Publisher: Vintage
Richard Russo grew up in Gloversville, New York, the small, mostly working-class
town that has served as the prototype for his fictional Mohawk and North
Bath. His parents were separated, and he recalls his father as a man who
"lived a life of studied bad habits. I became of interest to him when
I got old enough to follow him into the OTB and then into the bar and
then into the pool hall, when I could be taken to the places he went and
not interrupt the rhythm of his life."
With his father, Russo worked
construction jobs during his vacations from the University of Arizona,
where he received his B.A. He later went on to get a master's degree and
had almost earned his Ph.D. in American literature when it occurred to
him that he would rather write his own novels than analyze other people's.
He is the author of three books, Mohawk, The Risk Pool,
and Nobody's Fool, which has recently been made into a feature
film starring Paul Newman and Bruce Willis. Richard Russo teaches writing
at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He lives there with his wife, Barbara,
and their two daughters.
top of the page
