Spooner ~ Book Review and Giveaway!

Everyone hopes the world to have that one person in life who despite having no understanding of you still stands by you, supports you, and is desperately determined to push you along the right path though you may go kicking and screaming. I believe one could term this unconditional love. Spooner may just have found this in his step-father! A relationship perhaps gone un-analyzed, unrealized, and unacknowledged by both step-father and step-son.

Have you ever heard a tale so crazy or bizarre you just knew it had to be true because it would be impossible to make up? The characters in Pete Dexter's novel Spooner are so quirky they can not help but appear believable.

Spooner was born in Milledgeville, Georgia in 1956.

"As it happened, Spooner was second out the door that morning, a few moments behind his better-looking fraternal twin, Clifford, who, in the way these things often worked out for Spooner's mother, arrived dead yet precious as life itself, and in the years of visitation ahead was a comfort to her in a way that none of the others (one before Spooner, and two further down the line) could ever be. And was forever, secretly, the favourite child."(Dexter 2009:4)

Perhaps Spooner spent his entire life living with this notion of inadequacy. Spooner, the black sheep, of a family of intellectually advanced children had only one ally, his step-father, Calmer Ottosson. Calmer an ex-naval officer's marriage to a woman who happened to be Spooner's mother seemed his only tie to the boy but a love equal to that of a parent linked the two polar opposites in a poignant and inexplicable way.

Brimming with humourous and quirky characters against a backdrop of dysfunction Dexter's story of a troubled youth turned troubled and violent adult reveals a moving relationship hidden beneath the surface of the everyday lives of his characters. Dysfunctional, humourous, and clever, this novel celebrates the significance of patience and resilience in any parental relationship in a way readers will not soon forget!

To share a peek at this uniquely quirky novel, Spooner by Pete Dexter enter to win one of five copies up for grabs here at Northern Mama thanks to Miriam of Hachette Book Group.
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Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents. Giveaway closes October 16th, 2009 10:00pm MT. For further details read Giveaway Rules.