Wigfield

Wigfield
by Amy Sedaris

Wigfield
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Book Summary Information

Author: Amy Sedaris
Edition: Audio Cassette
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2003-04-28
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 330
Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Summary of Wigfield

Wigfield is a small bucolic hideaway, situated in front of a massive dam which is about to be torn down by the state government to restore the salmon run. Wigfield's only hope lies in the self-righteous, self-involved "journalist" Russell Hokes, who arrives hoping to capture the quiet dignity of the disappearing American Small Town. However, Wigfield is nether quiet nor dignified. As the date of destruction draws nearer, Hokes casts about desperate to find something about Wigfield worth documenting. WIGFIELD is a razor-sharp satire by three major talents.
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

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