William Henry (Hank) Devereaux Jr., is a professor and chairman of a disfunctional English Department at a small eastern college. During a budget dispute he is filmed by a news crew wearing a false nose and glasses, brandishing a goose over his head and threatening to kill a duck a day until he gets a proper budget.This skewering of academia is my favorite work by Russo and one of the funniest books I've read. He has a palpable sense of compassion for the lead character and the successes and failures the we must come to terms with as we age.