Warren Spooner was born after a prolonged delivery in a makeshift
delivery room in a doctor's office in Milledgeville, Georgia, on the
first Saturday of December, 1956. His father died shortly afterward,
long before Spooner had even a memory of his face, and was replaced
eventually by a once-brilliant young naval officer, Calmer Ottosson,
recently court-martialed out of service. This is the story of the
lifelong tie between the two men, poles apart, of Spooner's troubled
childhood, troubled adolescence, violent and troubled adulthood and
Calmer Ottosson's inexhaustible patience, undertaking a life-long
struggle to salvage his step-son, a man he will never understand.
Pete Dexter began his working life with a
U.S. Post office in New Orleans, Louisiana. He wasn't very good at mail
and quit, then caught on as a newspaper reporter in Florida, which he
was not very good at, got married, and was not very good at that. In
Philadelphia
he became a newspaper columnist, which he was pretty good at, and got
divorced, which you would have to say he was good at because it only
cost $300. Dexter remarried, won the National Book Award and
built a house in the desert so remote that there is no postal service.
He's out there six months a year, pecking away at the typewriter,
living proof of the adage What goes around comes around--that is, you quit the post office, pal, and the post office quits you.
Pete Dexter began his working life with a
U.S. Post office in New Orleans, Louisiana. He wasn't very good at mail
and quit, then caught on as a newspaper reporter in Florida, which he
was not very good at, got married, and was not very good at that. In
Philadelphia
he became a newspaper columnist, which he was pretty good at, and got
divorced, which you would have to say he was good at because it only
cost $300. Dexter remarried, won the National Book Award and
built a house in the desert so remote that there is no postal service.
He's out there six months a year, pecking away at the typewriter,
living proof of the adage What goes around comes around--that is, you quit the post office, pal, and the post office quits you.
