Spooner
Published on 1. April 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
480 pages
978-1-84887-339-1 (ISBN)
Description
Warren Spooner is born in rural Georgia, on the first Sunday of December 1956, after a prolonged and unhappy labour in a makeshift delivery room. His troubled birth is swiftly followed by his father's untimely death - and young Spooner is left to get on with growing up, without even a memory of his daddy's face.
Spooner makes it into minor league baseball, but an injury to his throwing arm relegates him to the sidelines, and dashes his hopes of making it to the big-time. But the young man is nothing if not resilient, standing up to tragedy and adversity in his own dark (often extremely dark) ways. Through it all his step-father - Calmer Ottoson - stands by, determinedly trying to save his step-son, yet utterly powerless to do so.
From Spooner's troubled childhood, to his troubled adolescence and violent and troubled adulthood Pete Dexter tells an entirely gripping story of one man's inexhaustible patience tested to the limits as he struggles to rescue a step-son he will never understand.
Spooner makes it into minor league baseball, but an injury to his throwing arm relegates him to the sidelines, and dashes his hopes of making it to the big-time. But the young man is nothing if not resilient, standing up to tragedy and adversity in his own dark (often extremely dark) ways. Through it all his step-father - Calmer Ottoson - stands by, determinedly trying to save his step-son, yet utterly powerless to do so.
From Spooner's troubled childhood, to his troubled adolescence and violent and troubled adulthood Pete Dexter tells an entirely gripping story of one man's inexhaustible patience tested to the limits as he struggles to rescue a step-son he will never understand.
Reviews / Votes
"* 'One of the greatest American writers, a storyteller who cuts straight to the nerve.' Scott L. Turow 'Dexter, the gorgeous writer of hard beauties like Paris Trout, will make you laugh yourself into a fit one page and hold back tears the next... Throughout this sprawling heart-thumper of a read, the writing goes down like a feast.' Entertainment Weekly 'Pete Dexter, writing of the part played by love in the exuberant life of his hero, Spooner, and the fatal inevitability of the compromises that make life bearable, has given us a novel of picaresque vitality - outlandish, anecdotal, profuse, funny, profound.' Susanna Moore, author of In The Cut 'The best new novel I read this year' Mark Haddon on Train 'A grim and fascinating novel filled with wonderfully comic touches... A fine and engrossing work.' William Styron on Paris Trout 'A masterpiece, complex and breathtaking.' Los Angeles Times on Paris Trout 'Extraordinary... A formidable achievement... Other writers must now be measured against Pete Dexter.' San Francisco Chronicle on Train"More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
650 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84887-339-1 (9781848873391)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Peter Dexter won the US National Book Award for Fiction for Paris Trout, two Penn West Awards for Best Novel of the Year (Paris Trout and The Paperboy), and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Novel for his last novel, Train.