There are so many books out there-boring, predictable books-about a charming, good-looking protagonist; a dashing hero facing impossible odds who saves the day after a giant, vapid climax. Good guys over here; bad guys over there. But not OXYGEN DEBT. Its anti-hero, Clay Griffin, is a real mess. His bulbous nose juts out like a ship's full-sailed mast; his fattened cheeks are pitted with acne scars that cast shadows like a lunar relief map. He's got a mullet that he feathers with a dandruff-speckled plastic comb. He listens religiously to Bob Seger while he drives his fourth-generation 1978 Chevy Nova from his one-room apartment to a real dandy of a job--fishing pieces of meat out of an industrial-sized bone grinder at a meat packing plant in a fictitious Nebraskan town. One day in the middle of this ugly monotony, Clay's boss summons him to his office and fires him. This spurs Clay to action. He declares war on his dead-end life. Hell-bent to turn things around, he heads west on a cross-country Odyssey where he gets pummeled by a golf club-wielding convenience store attendant, saved by Samaritans (who he subsequently steals from), taken under the wing of a corrupt foreman who abuses wayward Mexican day laborers, involved in an internecine turf war between opposing homeless shelter gangs under the stewardship of a tonsured Franciscan monk, and eventually mingled in a romantic relationship with an enigmatic woman, Karen. Karen changes his life. A world-class marathoner, Karen introduces him to the world of running. She helps him lose weight and gain confidence by training him to run his first marathon. She picks him up and builds him into something he's never become: fit, happy, and madly in love. Clay has never been happier, in fact. And so they got married and live happily ever after, right? Not quite. There's a lot more to Karen. And there's a lot more to Clay too. Read OXYGEN DEBT to find out.