Submarine, by British writer Joe Dunthorne, is a first novel of plainspoken and guileless poetry.

"Nngh," says Oliver Tate's father, staggering a bit.

"No time for vowels," Oliver observes.

Oliver is the protagonist of Submarine, which is set in Swansea, Wales, and he is way too clever for himself. But he's still endearing as he self-consciously expands his vocabulary, keeps a list of girls he has kissed, and surveils his parents. Worried that his mother is having an affair, he decides to investigate. This is a funny and affecting coming-of-age novel, and the protagonist is a British great-nephew-in-law to Salinger's Holden Caulfield.