Wakefield: A Novel
Sep 2015 · Open Road Media
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230
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About this ebook
A modern-day Faust embarks on a wild romp through the peculiar and preposterous American landscape
When the Devil shows up in Wakefield’s living room to announce that his time is up, the bookish “de-motivational” speaker tries to strike a deal. The Devil agrees to prolong Wakefield’s life—for now—on the condition that within the next year he finds a more authentic existence. For Wakefield, who is estranged from his family, nearly friendless, and excellent at his job of lowering expectations in a positivity-crazed world, living “authentically” is a tall order. But he will try: an extra 12 months might be worth it.
Wakefield’s bargain sets in motion a cross-country quest to find his life’s purpose. Along the way, he encounters an array of all-American weirdness from plastic surgeons and sadomasochistic strippers to phony New Age yoga gurus and billion-dollar tech start-ups. Codrescu’s astute observations and quick wit illuminate the comedy found in our national culture of narcissism and self-improvement.
When the Devil shows up in Wakefield’s living room to announce that his time is up, the bookish “de-motivational” speaker tries to strike a deal. The Devil agrees to prolong Wakefield’s life—for now—on the condition that within the next year he finds a more authentic existence. For Wakefield, who is estranged from his family, nearly friendless, and excellent at his job of lowering expectations in a positivity-crazed world, living “authentically” is a tall order. But he will try: an extra 12 months might be worth it.
Wakefield’s bargain sets in motion a cross-country quest to find his life’s purpose. Along the way, he encounters an array of all-American weirdness from plastic surgeons and sadomasochistic strippers to phony New Age yoga gurus and billion-dollar tech start-ups. Codrescu’s astute observations and quick wit illuminate the comedy found in our national culture of narcissism and self-improvement.
About the author
“Codrescu has written a tour de force comedy in which he proves—as did Dante and Milton and Goethe and Mark Twain before him—that Beelzebub is literature’s best character. He also confirms the internationally agreed-upon notion that America is the Devil’s ripest ground. I laughed out loud.” —Mary Karr
Andrei Codrescu (www.codrescu.com) is the editor of Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Books & Ideas (www.corpse.org). Born in Romania, Codrescu immigrated to the United States in 1966. His first collection of poetry, License to Carry a Gun (1970), won the Big Table Younger Poets Award, and his latest, So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems: 1968–2012 (2012), was a National Book Award finalist. He is the author of the novels The Blood Countess, Messi@, Casanova in Bohemia, and Wakefield. His other titles include Zombification: Essays from NPR; The Disappearance of the Outside: A Manifesto for Escape; New Orleans, Mon Amour; The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile’s Story of Return and Revolution; Ay, Cuba!: A Socio-Erotic Journey; The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess; Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments; The Poetry Lesson; and Bibliodeath: My Archives (With Life in Footnotes).
Codrescu is the recipient of an ACLU Freedom of Speech Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for poetry, and the Peabody Award for the movie Road Scholar. Until retiring in 2009, he was the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University.
Andrei Codrescu (www.codrescu.com) is the editor of Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Books & Ideas (www.corpse.org). Born in Romania, Codrescu immigrated to the United States in 1966. His first collection of poetry, License to Carry a Gun (1970), won the Big Table Younger Poets Award, and his latest, So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems: 1968–2012 (2012), was a National Book Award finalist. He is the author of the novels The Blood Countess, Messi@, Casanova in Bohemia, and Wakefield. His other titles include Zombification: Essays from NPR; The Disappearance of the Outside: A Manifesto for Escape; New Orleans, Mon Amour; The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile’s Story of Return and Revolution; Ay, Cuba!: A Socio-Erotic Journey; The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess; Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments; The Poetry Lesson; and Bibliodeath: My Archives (With Life in Footnotes).
Codrescu is the recipient of an ACLU Freedom of Speech Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for poetry, and the Peabody Award for the movie Road Scholar. Until retiring in 2009, he was the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University.
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