The Devil Never Sleeps by Andrei Codrescu

Have you ever heard Andrei Codrescu’s commentaries on NPR? I first heard him in 2002, not long after I started listening to NPR. Nothing I had heard up to then, or perhaps since, affected me the way his wonderful Romanian accent and singular perspective on humanity in modern times did.

The commentary I heard that first day was called “Soul for Sale On eBay,” in which Codrescu humorously reflected upon the history of selling souls after seeing that a man had put his soul up for auction with a starting price of 99 cents. That price had gone up to over $400 before eBay authorities pulled it. But Codrescu’s contention was that 99 cents was perhaps a fair price in these times for a single soul. Whereas in Faust’s time, a soul could be sold for all the riches and love a man could want, the economics of soul-selling did cycle over time. These days, he concludes, there are so many willing sellers that the price has been driven downward.

I don’t explain it nearly as well as Codrescu does, so you should listen to it yourself. My point is, I was hooked. I started listening to NPR constantly just so that I wouldn’t miss one of his commentaries. Everything he said seemed more witty, intelligent, and insightful than anything else I was reading or listening to. (I suspect the accent is responsible for some of that perception—it is simply delicious.)

But Codrescu was only on the radio once a week or so, and that was not enough. I looked elsewhere and found a book of essays he wrote called The Devil Never Sleeps.

I, uh… I never finished it.

I tried, but what I suspected was indeed true. It’s his accent I love. When I read his writing, it sounds in my head like me reading. With my Northeastern/pseudo-Californian accent—ugh. And then it doesn’t seem special anymore. It sounds like an essayist writing long treatises on the minutiae inside his own head. I love the minutiae, but it just isn’t the same without hearing his voice.

The Devil Never Sleeps by Andrei Codrescu

1/18/07 edit: The Valve has a funny response to the Onion's question of the value of George W. Bush's soul.

Tags: book reviews NPR accents Andrei Codrescu