(A theme in virtually every Russo novel, but if you’re new in these parts, grab “ The Risk Pool” or “ Nobody’s Fool” or “ Empire Falls” the last one earned the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.) How marriage devolves into a two-headed Kabuki drama.

(Fighting words, but I’d pit Russo’s “ Straight Man” against any of the novels in David Lodge’s “ Campus Trilogy.”) The disappointments of midlife. The stories in “Trajectory” are a guided tour through the author’s preoccupations: the follies of academia. Nate is the protagonist of “Voice,” one of the quartet of thoughtful, soulful stories that make up Russo’s new collection, “Trajectory.” Three of them originally appeared elsewhere one, “Milton and Marcus,” is new, and it’s such a tart, dishy portrait of a famous Hollywood actor that it’s a wonder that it isn’t being served at Spago. “Maybe it’s his own low self-esteem that people are picking up on, self-recrimination his new default mode.” “He wonders if people actually see him differently now, or if he’s just seeing himself differently,” Russo writes. You want a typical Russo beta male? Here’s an example: Nate, an English professor who’s been whisked out of his university with a broom, and not under pleasant circumstances. Russo is the troubadour of self-deprecation. But most.) He may be renowned for his cuddly rogues, but he also specializes in their opposites - unentitled men who are unassuming and hopeless around women and rumbling with uncertainty. Even his rascals you want to wrap in tissue paper for safekeeping. $25.95.įew authors do male vulnerability as well as Richard Russo. TRAJECTORY Stories By Richard Russo 243 pages.

Straight man richard russo review