Spooner

Spooner, by Pete Dexter (Grand Central Publishing, 2009, $26). 

This is a terrific read right off the bat as the character Spooner arrives in the midst of a bloody messy birth.  He then basically struggles with life from there on.  Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, he grapples with his strange impluses (breaking into enemies' homes and urinating in their shoes!).  Disgusting, and yet, somehow he's very lovable!  His perceptions as a young boy are totally endearing as he tries to make sense of the world.   Very luckily, his mother remarries a wonderful man, Calmer (interestingly named) who takes beautiful care of Spooner and his three sibs who are mostly high achievers.  There's quite a bit of rough stuff in this novel, but Dexter peppers it with much humor and wonderful insights.