Book Fair I: Lawless on Russo

Welcome to episode #I of the Underbelly summer Book Fair! As promised, we'll be offering book suggestions from a variety of friends, neighbors, blogging colleagues and assorted ruffians of assorted stripes and sizes. First up, we give the microphone to Bob Lawless, professor of business-y law at the University Illinois and a principal proprietor of Credit Slips, your one-stop shopping center for the latest on issues of bankruptcy and credit law. Here's Bob in an academic but non-bankrupt mood:

I recommend Straight Man by Richard Russo because Buce will only let me pick one book. If you're not at a university, it probably qualifies as mildly amusing, but every academic who reads the book finds it a spot on send-up of modern academic life. There are the usual vicious fights because the stakes are so small, as the saying goes about life in a university, but the book's characters also have to grapple with a fight where the stakes are not so small. These struggles force the book's main character, Henry Devereaux, Jr., to grapple with the meaning of his labors in the academic backwater that serves as the book's setting. Indeed, most of the book's characters are grappling with that same question. The book is a great summer read, and one of the few books that I have taken the time to read more than once.

Thanks, Bob--another post later in the week. For your convenience, we will be collecting all the Book Fair posts here.