The Every Boy by Dana Adam Shapiro

The blurbs on The Every Boy call this first novel Salingeresque, and come from the likes of Tom Perrotta, Amy Sedaris, and J.T. Leroy. I'm not sure I read the same book. The Every Boy is the story of Henry Every, who, we are told, has died at 15. The story is told through the device of his father's reading of Henry's "ledgers".

Henry's father is a retired dermatologist who raises jellyfish. His mother is an absent Scandinavian who loves ant farms. His grandmother, who Henry visits during the course of the ledger reading, is a wacky oldster with money.

Henry also writes about his friend Jorden, a girl with a quirky homelife to match his, and Benna, the "could be dream love" of his short lifetime.

Mostly, The Every Boy is a coming of age novel with strange and estranged parents. I lost steam about 3/4 of the way through, and only finished it to find out how Henry died.