At first the lizard was just one more source of tension between us. Laney bought it secondhand from some woman down in Huntsville who said it kept her cockroach problem under control. She told Laney it was a fine lizard, whatever that means, and she flat hated to sell it but she was just about to get married and didn't think she's need a lizard anymore. I guess we all start out with high expectations.

Jimmy Vann was twice reported dead in World War II, and only after reading his own glowing obituary did he find his true calling: selling life insurance. Jimmy's son, Nolan, falls far short of his father's expectations. With no war of his own to reckon with, Nolan lives a life without gravity in the small Southern town in which he grew up.

During the span of a two-week carnival and in the midst of a failing marriage, Nolan finds work as a repo man and inadvertently begins a journey of self-discovery. On the fringes of town, where repo work is plentiful, he encounters an inspired cast of characters including a zookeeper who specializes in dangerous animals, an inconvenient corpse, and a family of snake handlers. Despite a seemingly endless series of mishaps, Nolan persists in his efforts to convince the reader-- and himself-- that his life means something.