Spooner

Warren Spooner was born in an unconventional and disturbing manner and the rest of his life followed a similar path. This sweeping novel follows “Spooner” through his creepy childhood in a small town in Georgia, the kid had some odd fetishes, to his surprising success as a high school pitching phenom, to later adulthood as a writer and family man. It’s interesting that this is purported to be semi-autobiographical, but Dexter paints the protagonist as a slightly doltish outcast, dim and eccentric, who seems to bond better with dogs than people. The author easily makes up for this by creating some other indelible characters, especially Calmer, Spooner’s step-father. An ex-Naval Officer, who becomes a school teacher and then a show more wonderful father to Spooner and his other siblings. He is warm, hard-working and intelligent. I loved this character and his name is pitch-perfect! Dexter reminds me of a southern John Irving: very funny, darkly twisted and quite unforgettable. Highly recommended! show less

Spooner never seemed to fit easily into the world. He was the product of a difficult labour. The only one of four siblings not highly intelligent. I think of him as a slighly rounded peg almost, but not quite, fitting into the square world.

Spooner's widowed mother (Lily) marries Calmer Ottossen when Spooner is four years old, and this book is primarily the story of the relationship between Calmer and Spooner. There is a deep bond between them, even though they always remain "just out of reach" of really understanding each other. It is a story about bonds of family and love.

Pete Dexter writes with a dark sense of humour which keeps his characters believable even when they find themselves in somewhat unlikely circumstances. He tells a show more good story. show less

Holy cow, this is good. A boy grows into manhood with the help of his stepdad, starting out in the South and winding up on Whidbey Island, Washington; it's largely about how men think and feel, and about how they do or don't express themselves, in a dark, funny, I-can't-believe-he-said-that kind of way. Honestly, the story is sometimes as stitched-together and staggering as Frankenstein's monster, but like him it's also immensely strong and impossible to keep your eyes off of.

Warren Spooner was trouble even before he was born. Spooner weighed in at all of five pounds when his mother finally pushed him in out into the world after spending 53 hours in labor that first week of December 1956. He arrived only a few seconds after his more handsome twin brother and, even though his twin never took a breath, Spooner knew that his dead brother would always be his mother’s favorite child.

As difficult a child as he was to give birth to, Spooner’s mother found him an even more difficult one to raise, especially in contrast to his near genius siblings. However much Spooner may have struggled with reading and writing, however, he had certain skills of his own. At four years old, for example, he discovered a talent show more for breaking into the homes of his Milledgeville, Georgia, neighbors during the night, peeing into their shoes before placing them in their refrigerators, and making a clean getaway.

This little guy with such great potential in the field of home break-ins, though, was fatherless, leaving a hole in his family that would soon be filled by one Calmer Ottosson. Ottosson was a formal naval officer who managed to make such a fiasco of a congressman’s burial at sea that he was looking for a fresh start when he arrived in little Milledgeville. With Spooner, he got more than a fresh start; he would spend the rest of his life trying to salvage his new stepson.

"Spooner" is not a plot driven novel. Rather, it focuses on a series of events in the lives of Warren Spooner and his stepfather, often with significant gaps of time and experience between one event and the next. The steady passage of time, spread over more than 500 pages, though, results in a dual biography of two men whose lives were closely tied together for decades. The two first meet when Calmer begins to court four-year-old Spooner’s mother and they are still close when Calmer, suffering from early signs of dementia, is taken into Spooner’s home for the remainder of his life.

Along the way, the two, especially Spooner, do a lot of living, and the reader comes to care for both of them. Life would never be dull for Spooner; he makes sure of that via a series of reckless, spur-of-the-moment decisions that sometimes seem likely to kill him or drive him nuts. But Calmer is always there to help pick up the pieces and, when it counts most, Spooner is there for Calmer.

Pete Dexter has done a masterful job with "Spooner," filling it with laugh-out-loud absurdity at times and with tear-jerking tragedy at others. Readers will have to decide for themselves if they are reading a comedy or a tragedy, something I am still trying to figure out for myself. Comic tragedy, anyone? How about tragic comedy? Either way, this one is definitely fun.

Rated at: 5.0 show less

Spooner. One of those characters that constantly has you shaking your head and wondering, "Why?" At the same time, a character worth caring about - one worth the reader's time in getting to know. Spooner is just one of many eccentric characters that populate his world. No matter how outrageous the situation or the people, it all rings true. Life is like that sometimes, isn't it? Central to it all is Spooner's relationship with his stepfather Calmer. Despite the chaos of it all, Calmer displays the patience of Job. In the end there is an unspoken understanding, a quiet love that wins the day. The book itself possesses a mix of humor and pathos that keeps it all in perspective. This was one of the best books I read in 2009. Excellent, show more energetic, and engaging writing by Dexter makes this a winner. show less

So rare a book like this. As I neared the end, which I could tell was coming by the number of pages remaining, I knew I was going to miss these characters. I liked a lot of them. That in itself is rare. But the book itself is a rare thing. A beautifully constructed, rollicking and insightful companion. One I might like to come back to and relish passages of.

I also think that the book ended just right. It felt complete when we got there and I wouldn't have done it any other way.

At the risk of muddying your impressions, I have to say that the only book this reminded me of in the slightest is The World According to Garp. Imagine if that book was a little more literate, a little deeper. A little darker. Its been years since I read that show more book, and only minutes since I read this book, which makes the comparison all the less reliable.

Very highly recommended. Jump right in. show less

I just like the way this guy writes - it's never all La-De-Da big, bright and colourful nor is it a big build up with a super hero at its core no, it's more like h'e taking you up a long straight steep hill where every-so-often something stops you and makes you pause in sheer wonderment but you know you cant stop and ask who what why or when you've got to go on & keep right on keeping on right to the very end. Spooner is a twit, a nit-wit, an odd ball and a good guy all rolled into one and Calmer the other main lead in this story well...he's just how you'd have liked your Dad to be. I liked it all and felt a little sad when and how it ended but that too was just perfect - It's a different read but a good read