The Devil Never Sleeps

The Devil Never Sleeps

Andrei Codrescu

Poetry / Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

The Devil is alive and well and living in America, Andrei Codrescu tells us, and with good reason. Nowhere else in the world--not even in Codrescu's native Transylvania--is he taken quite as seriously. When Codrescu gently derided the fundamentalist Christian belief in Rapture ("a pre-apocalyptic event during which all true believers would be suctioned off to heaven in a single woosh") in one of his commentaries on National Public, NPR received forty thousand letters in a protest spearheaded by Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition. Codrescu was warned to "stay away from eschatology."Thankfully for us, he hasn't. In The Devil Never Sleeps, one of America's shrewdest social critics sets out to uncover the Devil's most modern and insidiously banal incarnations. Once easily recognizable by his horns, tail, and propensity for plague, today's Devil has become embedded in every fiber of our culture. Discussing everything from rock 'n' roll to William Burroughs to New...
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Messi@

Messi@

Andrei Codrescu

Poetry / Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

At the end of the millennium, as Armageddon looms, two young women from opposite sides of the world unite as humanity's last hope for salvation In New Orleans, private investigator Felicity LeJeune has made it her mission to bring down the corrupt televangelist Reverend Mullin, leader of the United Ministries, who filched two million dollars in lottery winnings from Felicity's unassuming grandmother. Meanwhile, Mullin's flock of religious fundamentalists bombards the media with threats of catastrophic horror if people refuse to accept him as their savior. Across the globe, the mysterious Sarajevan orphan Andrea Isbik escapes a Serbian POW camp and finds asylum in Jerusalem, where she seduces cavalcades of religious scholars before finally landing in the Big Easy herself. There, amid the reverie of Mardi Gras, something dark is building. Surrounded by a wild cast of characters, Andrea and Felicity join forces to combat the impending apocalypse, fending...
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Wakefield

Wakefield

Andrei Codrescu

Poetry / Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

A modern-day Faust embarks on a wild romp through the peculiar and preposterous American landscape When the Devil shows up in Wakefield's living room to announce that his time is up, the bookish "de-motivational" speaker tries to strike a deal. The Devil agrees to prolong Wakefield's life—for now—on the condition that within the next year he finds a more authentic existence. For Wakefield, who is estranged from his family, nearly friendless, and excellent at his job of lowering expectations in a positivity-crazed world, living "authentically" is a tall order. But he will try: an extra 12 months might be worth it. Wakefield's bargain sets in motion a cross-country quest to find his life's purpose. Along the way, he encounters an array of all-American weirdness from plastic surgeons and sadomasochistic strippers to phony New Age yoga gurus and billion-dollar tech start-ups. Codrescu's astute observations and quick wit illuminate the comedy...
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