List Price: $26.95You Pay Only: $26.41 You Save: $0.54 ( 2%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781565117723
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 1565117727
Label: Highbridge Audio
Manufacturer: Highbridge Audio
Number Of Items: 4
Number Of Pages: 330
Publication Date: April 28, 2003
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Sales Rank: 221319
Studio: Highbridge Audio
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Wigfield revisited
Hilarious book, I have purchased 5 copies just so I can give them to friends.
Rating:  - Come for the cast/writer's work...
Stay for a prolonged taste of Colbert's Wilford Brimley impression. (Who wants cake?)
If you like Strangers With Candy...
(though you may want to start with the book version to revel in the writing and get an eyeful of what these characters look like)
Rating:  - This could have been a great book if it had been a great book
This is not a great book because it's not great. Let's face it. Ulysses is great. The works of Shakespeare are great. Lots of other books are great. But this book does not achieve greatness because it's not. That said, it's a good book. There are many good books and this is one of them. Fortunately, the authors found a way to synthesize their talents and render this a good book by managing to achieve what any good book achieves, and that is that it rises to the level of being a good book. So, in summary, my conclusion is that although it's a good book, it's not a great one.
Rating: - It's good
It's good, but not as funny as I thought it would be. Stephen Colbert's "I am America and so can you" is so much funnier.
Rating: - if you're a fan already - it's a must buy
Great opportunity to hear the voices of these three talented folk from Stranger With Candy - fun story - definitely get it on audio - I think you get so much more out of it. When I finished listening to it - I actually missed some of the zany characters enough to start it from the beginning all over again. Funny Funny Stuff!
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