Straight Man characters

Also known as Hank

Appears from the start

The sardonic narrator, an unsuccessful novelist and reluctant chair of the English department at a financially troubled college in Railton, Pennsylvania. He manages colleagues' feuds by provocation, delay, and jokes, even as rumors of layoffs force him to act. His famous father's long absence and his own fear of becoming like him complicate nearly every part of his life.

First appears in chapter 2

Hank's capable, clear-sighted wife, who works in education and has spent years translating his evasions into ordinary family life. She loves him without indulging every performance, and her possible move for a better job makes Hank face how much stability in their marriage has depended on her.

First appears in chapter 3

Hank's adult daughter. Her troubled marriage repeatedly pulls her parents into arguments about money, loyalty, and how much help they should offer.

First appears in chapter 3

Julie's husband, whose unreliable choices and tense relationship with Hank make him a recurring point of conflict in the Devereaux family.

First appears in chapter 5

A senior administrator at the college who warns Hank that budget cuts may require dismissals. He expects the department chair to impose order on a faculty that has made agreement almost impossible.

First appears in chapter 5

One of Hank's closest friends on the faculty. He understands the department's absurd rivalries and Hank's habits well enough to offer both companionship and unwelcome accuracy.

First appears in chapter 7

A younger member of the department whose professional insecurity and personal closeness to Hank feed campus gossip at the worst possible time.

First appears in chapter 8

A combative English professor and departmental colleague. Like several members of the faculty, he treats the threatened budget cuts as both an institutional emergency and another weapon in old internal battles.

First appears in chapter 12

Hank's father, a nationally prominent literary scholar whose career and abandonment of the family have overshadowed Hank since childhood. News that he may return forces Hank to reconsider grievances he has made central to his identity.

First appears in chapter 12

Hank's mother, who built a life after her husband left and has her own reasons for allowing him back into it. Her decision unsettles Hank's familiar account of their family history.