List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780786886968
ISBN: 078688696X
Label: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: May 19, 2004
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: May 19, 2004
Sales Rank: 96218
Studio: Hyperion
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Editorial Review:
Product 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?
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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This book is great. I found it to be hilarious! You can see the personalities of the authors in the writing. I have always liked Sedaris, Dinello, and Colbert. I am a big fan of Exit 57, Strangers With Candy, The Colbert Report, and other various movies and things that they have been in.
Rating: -
Hilarious book, I have purchased 5 copies just so I can give them to friends.
Rating:  -
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 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 ... Read More
Rating: -
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.
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