Trajectory
(Large Type)

Russo's characters in these four expansive stories bear little similarity to the blue-collar citizens we're familiar with from many of his novels.

A tenured professor confronts a young plagiarist as well as her own weaknesses as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. A realtor facing an ominous medical prognosis finds himself in his father's shadow while he presses forward, or not. A semi-retired English professor is conned by his estranged brother into coming along on a group tour of the Biennale. A lapsed novelist, struggling with his wife's illness and trying to rekindle his screenwriting career, is called to an aging star's mountaintop in Wyoming.