How can you not like Pete Dexter's 'Spooner'?

You're not going to read a bad review of Pete Dexter's latest novel here.

There are two reasons for that: Dexter doesn't write bad books, and he throws away better sentences than most of us could ever hope to write. In fact, he threw away at least 250 pages worth of sentences in the editing of "Spooner."

Beyond that, how could a reviewer ever pan such a thinly disguised autobiographical and personal work? It would be like panning Dexter's life, told here with such care as the tale of young Warren Spooner's journey to relative adulthood.

"Spooner" is a fascinating book filled with riotous laughs and moments of quiet poignancy. It's a sweet love story, really, about a wayward boy and the man who became his father, and, eventually, his friend.

All the hallmarks of Dexter's fabulous career are here: the wry humor, the vivid portrayals and the vague but unexplainable feeling that life is spinning along on a wobbly gyroscope whose path no one can chart. While much of his previous work examines the dark side of the human soul, "Spooner" is a bittersweet look at a man who always seems to do good.

When Calmer Ottosson comes into young Warren's life as his stepfather, the child is sneaking into his neighbors' houses to commit what can only be described as urinary vandalism. Spooner does other unexplainable acts for much of the rest of his life, including sitting in a fire ant pile, taking on a bar full of angry toughs, assault with a baseball, marriage.

Each self-inflicted crisis is answered quietly and competently by Calmer, who is befuddled by Spooner but nevertheless supportive. He's the one solid mooring in the life of a man who seems adrift.

Many events in the book match Dexter's biography. Like Calmer, he is kind to Spooner, but doesn't seem to know what makes him do the things he does. Perhaps Dexter intended to write and write until explanations appeared in front of him, but he doesn't seem to have come up with any answers, as the ending shows.

It takes patience to get through "Spooner," just as it takes patience for Calmer to keep from disowning his stepson. Like life, the novel meanders and takes readers places they didn't expect -- and perhaps didn't need to see. Characters pop in and out for no apparent reason. Some major characters are hardly drawn at all. Others, who don't figure in the story, get pages of beautifully layered descriptions, then are tossed away.

Dexter wrote a letter to reviewers explaining his problems with the book and how he lost time in its writing. He wrote that he was still cutting away pages and lopping off the bad sentences.

We'll just have to be patient. After all, it's pretty hard to sum up a life when you're still living it.