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Wigfield is in peril. The Bulkwaller Dam, which towers over the tiny town, is scheduled to be destroyed which would in turn wipe out Wigfield. Journalist Russell Hokes travels there to profile the brave and honest citizens who are struggling to save their community. Well, sort of. Actually, Wigfield is not so much a town as a series of ramshackle strip clubs and used-auto-parts stores, lacking any kind of civic infrastructure whatsoever. And its people are not so much "brave and honest" as "brutal," "homicidal," and "lacking any redeeming virtue whatsoever." Similarly, to call Hokes, who narrates his own struggles to gather accumulate 50,000 words, a "journalist" is at best an exaggeration and at worst an abomination against the institution of journalism itself.
The world of Wigfield, as concocted by the brilliant Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, and Amy Sedaris (creators of the Comedy Central series Strangers with Candy), is somewhat reminiscent of the slice-of-life small-town humor of Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman. But instead of putting on a musical, as the Guffman folks did, the people of Wigfield busy themselves trying to acquire government handouts and stabbing each other to death. When the government rebuffs their efforts, based on the fact that they're not technically a town, they come up with a plan to get paid anyway. Wigfield's residents (as played by Colbert, Dinello, and Sedaris) are portrayed in a series of compellingly grotesque portraits by renowned designer and photographer Todd Oldham. The humor of the book--much like the town's mentality--is dense, as nearly every sentence contains one or several grimly hilarious references. Fans of feel-good whimsy are advised to navigate toward lighter fare but social pariahs, disgraced journalists, brooding malcontented sociopaths, and anyone who enjoys dark, twisted, and profoundly funny writing will find a home in Wigfield. --John Moe
From Publishers Weekly
The authors are well-known comedians. The photographer is a famous designer. The result is unlike anything the genre of humorous fiction has seen before. The book tells, sort of, the story of Wigfield, a small town that realizes it's in danger when the government wants to destroy a local dam in order to protect the local salmon population. Faced with imminent flood, the town solicits Russell Hokes, a self-centered hack journalist, who hopes to capture the undying spirit of the all-American small town. Wigfield, alas, is very far from living up to the bucolic image it intends to foster, and as the dam draws nearer to destruction, so does Wigfield's self-created myth. The plot unfolds as a series of interviews Hokes conducts with local residents, accompanied by droll, surreal photographs by Oldham. In the end, Hokes succeeds in his goal, which is, as he notes in his attached r‚sum‚, to "write a book, other than the ones that I have already written, so that I may use my words like a sword of swift justice in service of the truth, but in an easy-to-read, highly marketable way." He does so, however, not by creating a Capraesque tribute to smalltown America, but by unwittingly exposing the bumbling foolery beneath its surface. The book is one of those rare works of satire that combine creative form, uproariously funny text and a painfully sharp underpinning of social criticism. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
A would-be investigative journalist goes in search of a juicy expose in order to justify the enormous book advance he's received (and already spent). Through sheer luck, most of it bad, he stumbles upon the town of Wigfield, festering at the base of a useless dam built in a fit of pork-barrel politics and about to be destroyed by the same bumbling bureaucrats. Wigfield, apparently, has it all. Okay, not all, but a lot. Well, some. Actually, Wigfield is nothing more than a handful of misogynistic misfits and murderous malcontents out to rip off the same government that's so eager to sell them, literally, down the river. Spoofing those ever-popular targets of governmental greed and corruption, big business and small towns, this comically lurid and clownishly laughable lampoon, a sure magnet for Sedaris fans, is written with the raw edginess one would expect from Second City alums and collaborators. A sophomoric, illustrated send-up of scams, scammers, and scam-ees, this scathing, silly, sardonic satire is as caustic as the toxic dump on which Wigfield lies. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
"To me, Wigfield is a deeply funny, refreshingly original book . . ."
Sarah Jessica Parker
"The creators of . . . Strangers with Candy have unleashed their disturbed point of view on the world of literary journalism . . . "
Esquire
"A seriously funny novel."
Book Description
Now in paperback, a hilarious, satirical look at a small town on the verge of extinction, from the comedic team behind Strangers with Candy. In his desperate search for a small town dying in America, intrepid journalist Russell Hokes stumbles upon a quarter-mile stretch of concrete and gravel dotted with strip clubs and used auto parts shops. Welcome to Wigfield. Population: vague. Upon his arrival, Russell Hokes wanders the streets searching for the salt of the earth. Instead he finds a town in crisis. Why? State Representative Bill Farber wants to tear down the Bulkwaller Dam, thereby flooding the town. Will Russell Hokes save the town? Is Wigfield merely posing as a town to collect federal disaster relief? Won't you please buy this book?
About the Author
Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert met at Chicago's Second City and have been collaborators ever since. They have developed two separate series for Comedy Central: Exit 57 and Comedy Central's first live action series, Strangers with Candy. Amy Sedaris is one half of the "Talent Family" -- the other half is David Sedaris -- and together they have collaborated on eight plays, including the Obie Award-winning One Woman Shoe. Stephen Colbert is a writer and correspondent on the Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show. In addition to television work, Dinello and Colbert are successful screenwriters. They currently reside together on an organic date farm on the Tunisian coast. Todd Oldham is a New York-based designer and photographer.
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