Wakefield

By: Andrei Codrescu

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman

When the Devil comes to take him, Wakefield, a motivational speaker and architecture buff, isn't ready. He plies the Dark One with scotch and strikes a bargain: He, Wakefield, will take a year to search for an alternative life.

Our tragicomic hero shares a name (and other traits) with the main character of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Wakefield". He criss-crosses the country, meeting New Age gurus, billionaire techno-geeks, global pioneers, gambling addicts, models, venture capitalists, art collectors, rainforest protesters, S&M strippers, and more. As his own "inner architecture" shifts, he attempts to restore his world through a shocking act that baffles even his jaded Satanic Majesty.

Just as Hawthorne created a portrait of the late 19th-century America, Codrescu captures the country in the late 20th. Part architectural thriller, part metaphysical mystery, part travel adventure, Wakefield reveals the compelling perplexities of the modern age.

©2004 Andrei Codrescu (P)2004 Highbridge Company

Critic reviews

"Codrescu raises big questions and presents interesting and often deeply comic modern insights¿" (Publishers Weekly)

Spagetti Dr. Faustus

Fans of Codrescu from NPR will recognize their friend. It may be a bit clunky as a novel, but rewards the listener with its learned commentary and Eastern Block magical realism. Excellent narration.

Wakefield starts out as a pretty generic contemporary American, a kind of high class schmuck, though blessed with a few interesting friends. And of course there?s the attention he gets from Satan: a philosophical, Bugs Bunny?esque version of the furry angel.

Wakefield makes good money as a post modern inspirational speaker ? a provocative, highly sophisticated, downer. Speaking off the top of his head he?s brilliant, invariably follows up by sleeping with his lovely corporate escort, before jetting off to the next gig.

His speeches range freely through all life?s big concerns, world politics, the various currents of the contemporary American dream, only to finish by pulling the rug out from under his audience. To summarize one of his speeches to a group of corporate titans: wealth destroys the soul, philanthropy artfully applied revives it, and then everything self destructs - phoenix like. That is, art and poetry are all that matter, and even they matter only fleetingly.

When he finally collapses back home he busies himself with reading, learned ramblings and adolescent grousing over his lot in life. He finds his own life burdensome ? ex wife, estranged daughter, even this job he invented for himself. But all is not lost, as he manages to appreciate the interesting things going on around him.

Wakefield the novel resembles Wakefield?s life ? a series of episodes only tentatively linked. Besides tryst after tryst, there are encounters with futuristic technology, an ethnic riot, a gun and art collecting billionaire. I wish Codrescu more fully explored a topic before racing on to the next. At the book?s sudden end I felt like a meatball in a plot of spaghetti. Please, thicker noodles next time.