"Wildlife biologist Wayne Richmond, an expert in the flora and fauna of California, is having a bad summer. He broke up with his wife, lost his job, and--during a field study in the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge--ingested a possibly toxic combination of laboratory cyanide and strawberry margarita. The result is a dazed Quixotian adventure, an epic tour of the state to map its endangered ecology. During his quest, Wayne runs afoul of a greedy...