Callisto

I hate to admit this but I picked up Callisto solely because of the cover. I couldn't tell you why the red on white crashed car hooked me but I can tell you that its designer truly earned their money. Thankfully, after reading the first couple of pages, the story made me forget what was on the front of the book. I won't go into the plot as others reviewers and the publisher have already done (and better than I could ever hope to). So what I can do is give this favorable comparison: Callisto reminds me of a darkly funny and twisted Seinfeld script (without that darned laugh ruining Laugh Track). Like so many Seinfeld episodes, no one seems to be in on the joke except for us the viewers/readers and that makes the book even funnier. The main character, Odell Deefus, is drawn to seem simple minded, naive and at times just plain stupid. However, Odell's mannerisms and thought process reminds me more of a mild autistic or someone with Aspergers syndrome than someone with a plain ol' low IQ. Mix Odell's strange wisdom, straight talk, imposing size, penchant for constantly re-reading the Yearling to a cast of holier-than-thou/smarter-than-thou locals, blend in a great mix of wrong place/wrong time, add some little white lies (Odell makes sure to point out that everything he says is technically true) that morph into Country changing events with pitch perfect writing and what you end up with one heck of a tall tale. Mr. Krol never lets the narrative get pulled down into a depressingly shallow grave (a grave that is literally dug up over and over) despite the rampant drugs, murder and betrayal that swirls around Odell. At times you may feel sympathetic towards Odell's plight but you'll never pity him. As the local sheriff says, ["Odell, I can't tell if you are a genius or just plain stupid"]. Either way, Mr. Krol is definitely in the first category.

A broken-down car on the back roads of Kansas is the first in a series of events that plunges a dimwitted everyman smack dab into the middle of a terrorist conspiracy in Callisto, Torsten Krol's pitch-black satire of the Bush presidency as seen through the eyes of its bumbling protagonist. Odell Deefus, large in stature but short on brains, quickly finds himself at the center of a terrorist probe by the FBI and various other governmental agencies in a post-9/11, Bush-era world of paranoia and corruption. Through a series of unfortunate events and misunderstandings, he becomes a prime suspect in a murder and assassination plot in the search for a homegrown terrorist cell in the fictional town of Callisto, Kansas. Superb writing immerses us in Odell's plight from the start; Krol perfectly captures the cadence and diction of Odell's intellectually-challenged simpleton, painting the character in Forrest Gump-like shades of grammatically-impaired eloquence. Callisto is a darkly hilarious romp through middle America, and perfectly skewers everything we love to hate about the Bush presidency. By the time you finish the novel, you'll likely thank your lucky stars that change has arrived in D.C., that we have Krol, hailing from Australia, as a promising new voice in literature. Reviewed by Mark Petruska

Twenty-one year old Odell Deefus is enlisting in the army. However, the thirty years old car he drives to take him to the recruiting center from his home in Wyoming breaks down on a remote back road somewhere near Callisto, Kansas. The big dumb hick feels fortunate his heap expired by a home. He knocks and enters when no one responds. A few moments later Dean Lowry ask him what he is doing here. Dean does not get much friendlier implying Odell, with his black man's name, is a fool to want to fight the Jihadists in Iraq. However, Dean is not a Good Samaritan. He has studied Islam with a jihadist's fundamentalist attitude, been involved with his Aunt Bree's disappearance and is connected to a nasty sort named "Donnie Darko." When Odell accidentally kills Dean with a bat and finds Bree's corpse in the freezer, he calls the police. The FBI conducts a massive search while also blowing away his claim that Dean with someone named Darko was plotting homeland terrorism; instead they assume he is the key member of a home grown terrorist cell and take him to the tropics for interrogation. This is an engaging wild look at the Americanization of terrorism through the eyes of a naive "Yearling". Odell, with his innocence and misunderstanding of subtly even those hammered into his face. He keeps the tale going as he is engulfed by cynics starting with Dean, Lowry's sister and the Feds; even his worship from afar of Condoleezza Rice becomes tainted. Although the story line is action-packed and at times overwhelming, readers who appreciate a well written satirical thriller will appreciate Torsten Krol's indictment of the unnecessary loss of innocence as a result not of 9/11 and the subsequent waste of global good will, but both caused by the American reaction to 9/11. Harriet Klausner

This is a long read and all the better for it, since it's very hard to put down. Anyone who has worried about the US Adminstration post 9/11 will see here all their fears hilariously confirmed, but quite apart from that Odell Deefus is the sort of character that once he enters your head you can't get rid of him - and nor can you stop laughing! A superb piece of comic writing by a curiously pseudonymous author. Any guesses, anyone?

Callisto is a very unique and interesting read. I guess the most similar character to compare to the main character Odell Deefus who is telling the story would be Forrest Gump. Just like Forrest, Odell isn't the brightest guy in the world and gets himself into some interesting situations due to his naivety, gullibility and eagerness to please as well as loyalty to those who are nice to him. As Forrest recounted his tale to an old woman waiting for a bus, Odell recounts his tale to his audience through writing it down in a few children's exercise books while travelling on a bus. Odell's tale begins as he is driving through America's south to enlist in the army since they now no longer require high school graduation. He's a nice guy but has no real skills so his future employment looks bleak. He's no dole bludger though and is prepared to enlist even though it is more than likely he'll be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan where he might well die, but he has to contribute to society in some way so if this is all he can get for a career he'll take it up. Unfortunately for Odell his car keeps breaking down and those that pass him by are not nice enough to help him out. Luckily when the car seems to have given up for the last time there's a driveway not too far away so Odell walks down it to grab a glass of water. There he is confronted by a man named Dean carrying a baseball bat but quickly convinces him he is not there to rob him. Dean offers to drive him to the enrolment office the next day, something to eat and to sleep on the couch. Dean is too hung over the next day to drive him to town or even do his job of mowing lawns so Odell grateful for all Dean has done offers to mow the lawns for him and be dropped off the next day instead. When he returns Dean seems to have changed from the nice guy he was, tells Odell to stay out of the backyard and wants to know where the tips he usually gets mowing the lawn are. Odell also discovers a freshly dug grave in the backyard and puts two and two together that Dean is about to murder him, probably in his sleep. When he awakens with Deans face beside his ear and holding a shotgun in his hand Odell hits him with a baseball bat but still being a nice guy tucks him into his bed. Only Dean has a visitor and since Odell doesn't want to get in trouble he pretends to be Dean, the next morning he makes Dean breakfast and discovers a body in the freezer and also that Dean is never going to wake up. When Dean's sister arrives on the doorstep Odell has to do some fast thinking to get her out of the house and explain why he is there before she discovers Dean. Now that two people have met him in Dean's house he can't just leave or he'll be pinned with murder. This is a very funny novel with a very likable main character who endures a lot as various people try and take advantage of him and government agents seem determined to pin terrorism charges against him. Why? You'll have to read this great book to find