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Wakefield

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About this listen

 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 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Fiction

Critic reviews

"Codrescu raises big questions and presents interesting and often deeply comic modern insights..." (Publishers Weekly)
"With the sophisticated, philosophical wit we've come to expect from his NPR commentaries, Codrescu weaves a fantastical, post-modern tale in which plastic surgery, architecture, and technology are metaphors for the human condition." (Entertainment Weekly)
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