Paul DinelloRezensionen

The joke gets old, but Wigfield is ok.

I was really shocked to see the amount of hate this book gets! I thought it would be funny, occasionally thoughtful, and definitely a good time. And it was so much more than that! The characters in the town are so well drawn. There are moments where the satire is powerful, and feels important, but it is done with nuance and without pushing perspectives on the reader (or, maybe I just agree with them more often than I disagree, one of the two).

I read the book and then listened to the audiobook, which is read by the authors, and is even better. It is unclear to me what people would want in this book besides exactly what it is. It's no Moby Dick. But is Moby Dick even Moby Dick?

Love the authors. Didn't love this project.

We bought this audiobook on the chance that it would keep us entertained during some long drives. I remember chuckling at a few jokes near the beginning, but we soon became bogged down in the one-trick-pony nature of this humor. If you like Colbert-style humor simply because it is Colbert-style humor, you might enjoy this, but for us, this was just too repetitive. By the time we'd met the tenth samey redneck character, we'd gotten the point. Enough already.½

At the time this book was written, Amy Sedaris, sister to writer David, was probably the best known member of the three writer-performers behind the bizarre Comedy Central show, Strangers with Candy. Of her cowriters Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert, it was the latter, later on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, then his own show, the satire of rightwing talk, The Colbert Report, who has moved into the ascendant. His recent showing at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, in a merciless skewering of both the President and the press has, if anything, increased his stock.That flair for comic genius is on show here in Wigfield: The Can-Do Town That Just May Not, the three writers’ novel about a small town that just might not even be a real town. When you put three comedians together, you most commonly get some kind of sketch comedy, and that’s what we have here, tied together by a supposed writer who is writing a profile of the small town about to be disbanded when the local dam was scheduled for demolition. Sedaris and Dinello take turns portraying the dirtbag denizens of Wigfield while Colbert plays the kind of ethics-free, self-absorbed fake journalist that is now his full-time gig.In situations like this, the common assumption is that each writer wrote the bulk of the lines for their character, with some assistance from the others. Thus in a town like Wigfield, with its string of clubs with names like Twat Shop and Tit Time, Sedaris plays a number of women of easy virtue, while Dinello picks up the DJs, the bouncers, the customers, and all three of the town’s competing mayors. Wigfield is also the kind of town with two competing oldest resident, neither above the age of fifty, and an art scene for which the term "dying" would imply more life than it really has.Settled at the foot of the completely useless Bulkwaller Dam, built so as to demonstrate “our country’s ability to construct monolithic concrete structures in the midst of adverse conditions,” Wigfield’s residents are seeking from the government compensation for their losses when the dam is blown. We likewise learn from an informational pamphlet that the dam was designed as to be “a structure so magnificent that it rivals any creation that God has put on this earth, thereby causing angels to weep with the knowledge that our Savior has been bested.”Russel Hokes, our unscrupulous narrator, has a dream, to write a book “like a sword of swift justice in service of the truth, but in an easy-to-read, highly marketable way.” But first he needs “an idea and a healthy advance.” In one scheme after another to pad out his manuscript to the golden requisite fifty thousand words (including at the beginning of each chapter the heading “One – Chapter One”), Hokes interviews members of the “town;” quotes liberally from the local paper, court transcripts, high school poetry, and “off the record conversation[s] that I thoughtfully recorded.”Along the way we meet out of work employees of the shut-down plutonium ditch, strip club managers and employees, the local Wiccans, the owner of Mack Donalds, each of Wigfield’s mayors (including the brain-damaged Charles Halstead, a fudge fanatic man-child kept in power by “appointed” pyromaniacal chief of police), the psychotic town taxidermist/morgue attendant (“One of the things I do over there is to make sure that all the bodies that come in are dead. Here’s my test: I just do things to them that no living being would allow, and if they don’t react, then I know they’re dead. And if they do react, well, the severity of the test usually makes that moot.”), among others.“And of course there’s those stories about the Wigfield maniac, how there’s a madman in town, but I don’t believe it’s real. I think somebody’s killing folks just to scare people,” as one resident puts it.The town’s fortunes take a possible turn for the better when the local State Representative convinces the authorities to blow up the dam, and all of the citizenry hope to cash in on sizable handouts. When this plan runs into a snag, as the town has no articles of incorporation, no sewers, sidewalks, real streets, or facilities, when it becomes clear through court testimony that they are not a real town but a collection of shanties filled with nutty squatters, the “citizens” of Wigfield are promised absolutely nothing. A tenderhearted judge provides them with a stay of execution to prove themselves an actual community, and Hokes convinces the town members to hold non-stop parades and public functions to prove they are indeed part of America’s small town fabric, leading to the novel’s climactic bit of hilarity.Each author takes his or her turn narrating the various characters, Dinello and Sedaris demonstrating a keen knack for accent, characterization, and delivery, while Colbert provides us with the kind of quick speaking double-talk that is his hallmark. “In short there was no downside, but at what cost?” he asks at one point, then later, as the court case begins: “I have to say, the idea of the legal system being fair and impartial always rang a little hollow to me, considering the number of times I woke up in handcuffs.” The three of them together provide something a little different from the average audiobook, a project that comes off as part book, part play, and wholly entertaining.

Oh what a great laugh. I cannot explain the plot in a way that will do it justice. Eminent domain, strippers, and wrecking yards somehow get woven together in a cheery tale of investigative reporting. These writers should be committed, Preferably together so they will write Wigfield 2, or somesuch.

I actually didn't read the book ... I listened to the audio and it was hilarious. I suppose I really should read the book, but listening to the authors camp it up was well worth the time it takes to get through the audio. The humour and sarcasm is fantastic throughout. If you liked Strangers with Candy, you'll love this book.

Russell Hokes: Great Journalist or The Greatest Journalist?

Wigfield represents the very best of quintessential small-town Americana. Built at the base of the pricey-but-worthless Bulkwaller Dam, Wigfield boasts sixteen gentlemen’s clubs (including the premier Tit Time Show Palace, The Bacon Strip, The Twat Shop and The Muffeteria), several junkyards, a community theater with a troupe of semi-trained rabbits, and even its own local rag, The Wigfield Sporadic. Like many charming small towns, Wigfield is under attack; but the threat lies not in urbanization, suburban sprawl, factory farming or the like. Rather, that which shaped the proud town of Wigfield will soon be unleashed upon it if the government goons have their way. The Bulkwaller Dam is scheduled to come down – oh noes!

Luckily, journalist Russell Hokes is on the case. Sent by Hyperion Books to document the plight of America’s dying small towns in 50,000 words or more (it's in the contract), Hokes arrives in Wigfield just in time! Between immersing himself in Wigfieldian culture and sidestepping his publisher, can Hokes prevent the flooding of Wigfield? Does anyone really care?

WIGFIELD: THE CAN-DO TOWN THAT JUST MAY NOT is a supersillious satire of small-town America. Admittedly, the comic stylings of Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello aren’t for everyone, but I pity the fools. If you like Strangers With Candy, The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, then you’ll love the saga of WIGFIELD.

In fact, reporter Russell Hokes of WIGFIELD is clearly the prequel to one Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, of THE COLBERT REPORT fame. From his trusting of the gut to his scorn for books, Hokes is the vision of Dr. Colbert in his early days. Both characters are somewhat dim, self-centered, obtuse, lazy, selfish, racist/sexist/homophobic, upper-crust anti-intellectuals. Even the various skits featured in WIGFIELD resemble those used on THE COLBERT REPORT: at one point, Hokes interviews himself, a la “Formidable Opponent,” while Hokes’s chat with Representative Bill Farber plays like an installment of “Better Know a District.” Throughout the book, you can imagine Stephen the pundit cutting his chops on the story of Wigfield in the visage of Hokes the journalist. Brilliant!

Much like Stephen Colbert’s more recent I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU), WIGFIELD is clearly meant to be enjoyed as an audio recording. Colbert, Sedaris and Dinello give voice to all the characters themselves, at times crossing gender lines. Their collective range is just 360 degrees of awesome. Stephen as man-hating lesbian High Priestess Thea is simply priceless. WIGFIELD the book is hilarious as well, but the audio version will have you LOL!!!1!!!1-ing. If your library happens to have a copy of the print book, it’s well worth a looksee, since there are a dozen or so photos of the comedians dressed up as their respective characters. Again, Stephen posing as a nearly-nekked Thea is – well, that alone is worth the price of the paperback. You’ll want to blow that photo up and hang it above the fireplace, right next to the portrait(s) of Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA.

America, bend over and relax, you're about to get a Truthoscopic examination.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2008/02/28/the-birth-pangs-of-truthiness-a-book-review...

If you enjoy the Colbert Report and The Daily Show you'll like this sarcastic story of a ridiculous town.

This book is insane. I'm a big fan of David's work, but know Amy and her crew well from TV. Reads like a hilarious, strange movie.

Funny, but in a one-note fashion.
Amy just doesn't have the flexibility and range of her brother; a single good David Sedaris story has more types of humor in it than this entire book.

She and Stephen really should stick to TV which they both do so well.½