Spooner by Pete Dexter

This is my favorite book so far this year. I read it back in January, and it is still a book that I am very excited about. The book takes its own trail, always going down unexpected paths, and the character who gives his name to the book does likewise. Spooner doesn't see the point in a lot of the things that are expected of him. His older sister, Margaret, is gifted and always does the right thing, but Spooner goes where he must, even if that is, as a child, into his neighbor's house to pee in their shoes, or, as an adult into a tavern where a large crowd of people wants to hurt him. His stepfather, the aptly named Calmer, is his lodestone, pointing out the way he should be going, while at the same time worrying over the path Spooner has chosen. The book has a great dignity following the almost absurd paths its characters follow, and while I sometimes flinched at the situations that Spooner (and Calmer) were in, they never did. Just a great book.--Patrick