WAKING UP SCREAMING FROM THE AMERICAN DREAM: NPR's Roving Correspondent Reports from the Bumpy Road to Success

A collection of humorous American oddities, including the Accountant Hall of Fame, earthworm farmers, and the town that added an exclamation point to its name to perk up its economy

According to NPR commentator Garfield, the American Dream is less about white picket fences and two cars in the garage and far more about ``the pursuit of happiness.'' As the humorist proves, the pursuit, while often noble, is just as often fruitless. Garfield divides his book into four parts, including the quest for ``world-changing'' ideas; get-rich-quick schemes; his trials and tribulations in pursuit of the American Dream; and a selection of his radio commentaries. Although he may be best known for his droll sense of humor, the tales in this book are not, as Garfield himself points out, always meant to evoke laughter. There is, for instance, the story of cosmetics entrepreneur Jan Stuart, who, after initial success in the industry, launched a hunger strike to protest the way in which big business squeezed him out. Similarly, the piece entitled ``A Whorehouse Christmas''--about legal prostitution in Nevada--ends with the lament of a 21-year-old hooker wondering aloud why God put her on earth. At times, Garfield can be glib to the point of offensiveness, as in his story about Charles Wixom, of the Institute of Food Technologies, a frozen-food development company, who has the misfortune of having to compete with the genocide in Yugoslavia for attendees to his news conferences. Ultimately, the problems with the book are those that afflict many such collections: a lack of continuity, combined with a poorly defined overall concept. Garfield is best when writing about himself, and the book is partly redeemed by the section on his own pursuits, which contains essays on tourism, house and car shopping, and hunting, all in a Dave Barryish vein. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

National Public Radio (NPR) commentator Garfield gathered his material for this collection of short essays from his travels around the U.S. over the past decade. Seeking out our country's eccentrics, dreamers, and wild-eyed "get-rich-quick" speculators, Garfield relates their quirky, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad stories in a slightly bemused tone. From an MBA financial analyst turned psychic healer in Santa Fe, to a Bronx bus driver who invests his savings in "Speakeasies" (cover-ups for public phone usage), to a Cleveland man who spends $50,000 hoping to get rich by publishing a magazine called Bathroom Journal, Garfield is never condescending and actually seems to admire some of the uniquely American characteristics (such as the pursuit, against all odds, of the world-changing idea and the never-ending hunt for the "big score") that he comes across. In short, it's the trying, not the succeeding, the incredible American optimism, that's the point of this enjoyable collection. Kathleen Hughes

Here's to Philip Klass, a teacher who steered the author toward journalism and taught him "how not to write." The writing that Garfield learned how to do is sometimes clever and witty, sometimes poignant, and sometimes clever and witty and poignant. His subjects are modern Don Quixotes tilting at the windmill of the American Dream?a dream that is different for different people presented here, e.g., the MBA financial analyst turned psychic healer. But these Quixotes are equally relentless in their pursuit of it, equally adamant in their refusal not to believe in themselves. What could have become a freak show with the author as its barker is not. Garfield shows too much respect for his subjects, and engages in too much self-deprecating humor, for that to happen. Not an absolutely essential purchase, but libraries that save a bit of budget money for the occasional treat should lap this up.?Jim G. Burns, Ottumwa P.L., Iowa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.