On Account of Because

What happens when your father drunkenly humiliates you at your eighth-grade graduation? What happens when your closest friends in early childhood are the letters of the alphabet, each with its own personality, who visit you in bed? What happens when your mother, while walking out the door for good, tells you "I wish I were a knitter instead of a needlepoint artist so I could have solved you in the womb"? Fifteen-year-old Clayton Clevinger is what happens. When Clayton meets Shiny, whose mother is in prison for burning down a house and burning up a dog, all in the name of love, and whose aunt suffers from an inability to feel any negative emotions, Clayton's life takes a turn for the even weirder. On Account of Because tells Clayton's story with humor both light and black. This debut novel by Keith Howard explores subjects ranging from Goofus and Gallant, death by caffeine, addiction to recovery from addiction, Rota Fortuna and Lawrence's dictum to trust the tail not the teller. It also has a mouse.