Wakefield - Andrei Codrescu

The initial plot of this book looked interesting so I picked it up from the library, hoping that the book would be as intriguing as the brief prologue: Wakefield, the protagonist of the novel, is paid a visit by the Devil who has come to fetch his soul. Being well read, Wakefield knows from history that the Devil likes to strike deals with humans so he proposes to live an 'authentic' life for an year and let the Devil be the judge of the authenticity. If the Devil is pleased he would let him go else take his soul. The Devil likes the proposal and lets Wakefield go on this journey to finding his authentic life. Wakefield is a motivational speaker and travels places each time improvising what he is going to talk about. The first half of the book covers him traveling from place to place giving his usual lectures. The second half covers his travels to California from the East on his favorite Oldsmobile. There are bits and pieces where Codrescu touches upon real life issues in the contemporary world but his overall handling of the book is at best patchy. The book feels like an endless rumble strip... the author touches upon one topic after another with hardly any correlation or storytelling. It just felt great to fall of the end and put a stop to the misery!