Once he starts telling us the story, we begin to understand why he's so desperate to assure us of his grip on sanity and his ability to think straight. Through an amazing series of coincidences, misadventures, misunderstandings, (there are a lot of those when Odell is involved), and straight out stupidity, Odell ends up involved with a scheme to run drugs into a local prison, a murder investigation, and the attention of the good folk at Homeland Security on suspicion of terrorist activity. To think it was all because he was making his way to the enlistment centre in Callisto, Kansas so he could do his patriotic duty and go over and kill some of them Islamic extremists.

He figures he stands a good chance of being signed up, even though he doesn't have a high school diploma, because they now have a test you can take instead. They're so desperate for recruits they're offering a bonus for signing up, so they're not going to be too bothered about whether a fellow's graduated or not. Besides, what else kind of work is available these days for a guy without a high school diploma? Nope; the army is just thing for a guy like Odell, and the millions of others like him across America.

Odell is not the only character in the book, but he is the centre of everyone's attention from the moment his car breaks down on the outskirts of Callisto on his way to the recruiting centre (which had been closed for about a year by the time Odell gets there, due to lack of interest.)

Most people meeting Odell for the first time realize what a golden opportunity he is for whatever plans they might want carried out. A born-again Christian preacher, drug running prison guards, a right wing politician, the FBI, and the boys from Homeland Security all see him as the answer to their prayers. What none of them count on is Odell's own unique way of seeing the world and how it will enable him to thwart them at every turn.

Torsten Krol, (who's a bit of a mystery as he does no publicity and only communicates to his agent by the Internet, leading to intense speculation as to his true identity), has created in Odell Deefus a character who is almost too naive to believe. Yet, once we learn to accept Odell's vision of the world and allow ourselves to see it through his eyes, everything he does makes perfect sense. Torsten has imbued him with an emotional depth and honesty that is humbling. For we, like all the other characters in the book, have the tendency to stop treating him like a human being and only see the surface fool.