I took a break from nonfiction since this was on my wait list at the library, and it recently came through.
The thing that stayed in my mind the most was the obvious relationship with dogs.
Spooner isn't smart. He's not even bright in some way. Everything he tries seems to mess up, although more in a sad way than a funny way.
There's a little puppy, who Spooner as a small (between the ages of 4-10) child terrorizes. There's the family dog moving to suburbia. There's Spooner's old dog, and there's Spooner's neighbor's dog. They all sound perfectly doggy. Perhaps its because I'm a dog lover, but Spooner is at his best with dogs. He's more human as a character when with dogs, instead of as a target for author sadism.
Perhaps everything is about the floating dead, and not dogs at all.
Perhaps its about marriage. Or parents. Or about just living.
Comedy and tragedy at every other moment, but no LOLs from me, just some ironic "HA!"s.
Largely I read fiction books as I look at art. At the end, there's a painting, and how do I feel? This one made me feel like my life cannot possibly suck more than this guy's, and it made me hug my dogs.
It's very readable, I'd recommend trying it out. You'll at least make it to the parts about shampoo and shoe-pissing-in with a smile.