Underdog / Michael Z. Lewin

In the middle of this funny story, the narrator, a small, resourceful homeless man named Jan Moro, tells how he was chased out of his shack at the Indianapolis fairgrounds by two men: “One of them has only seven toes and works for a guy who microwaves puppies to death and trains dogs to fight pigs.” Although he has no address, Jan considers himself an entrepreneur, different from the “homeless riffraff.” He keeps himself presentable, hangs out in hotel lobbies, thinks loitering in bus stations is a great spectator sport, and has hideouts all over town, one of them with a gun and three bullets he won in a poker game. The likeable and unusual hero has a constant stream of “great ideas”, such as a “slow-acting deodorant” for his clothes instead of his body. How Jan, a.k.a. Clarence Starch Jr. gets involved in the dog-eat-dog business, how he meets Billy Cigar, the desperado who owns the Linger Longer Lounge, and how he tries to con the police, who pay him to be a snitch, makes for a story that keeps the reader on the edge of his seat.