Wakefield

What is the connection between breast enlargement and building renovation, yoga retreats and gourmet restaurants, cell phones and globalization? Wakefield, both the title of Andrei Codrescu's tragi-comic novel and the name of its alienated hero, poses these and other compelling perplexities of the modern age.

Just as literary Fausts have done for centuries, Wakefield makes a bargain with Satan, who, as it turns out, is having his own existential crisis, due to bureaucratic headaches and younger upstart demons in the afterworld. The Devil gives him a year to find an alternative life. So Wakefield, a motivational speaker and architecture enthusiast, crisscrosses the country, meeting New Age gurus, billionaire techno-geeks, global pioneers, gambling addicts and models who look like heroine addicts, venture capitalists, art collectors, rainforest protectors, S & M strippers . . . all while anxiously trying to discover his authentic life.

Part metaphysical mystery, part travel adventure, part architectural romp, Wakefield explores the late American century and, as his own "inner architecture" shifts, attempts to restore his world through a shocking act that baffles even his jaded Satanic Majesty. Andrei Codrescu gives us a novel of big ideas, hilariously absurd and brilliantly observed.