"He couldn't really hear anything with all his dancing."

I love Jonathan Goldstein's show on CBC radio, WireTap. I didn't know he had written a novel until I happened upon it in a used bookstore in Victoria. It's called Lenny Bruce is Dead and it's a classic.
For example:

"There were balloons falling and Josh was thinking about taking some home. He thought of how it would make him feel to see them shrivelling down to nothing on the basement couch.
He was dancing. He wanted Mimi to see. He thought she had come to the party with him. She was poking those carrots in like that dip was her bitch. She was working that thing like she used to work him. Like the way she used to jerk him while watching TV.
He saw them both walk into the den, which was filled with books from top to bottom. Josh knew that she must have said 'Kerouac' to him several times and he was sure he said other names back to her. He couldn't really hear anything with all his dancing.
She was in that room saying things about books and the people who write them. Josh kicked a balloon over to the door. He started dancing just outside the door. He thought he heard, 'Kerouac, Kerouac'. His feet were wet in his shoes. His face wasn't shaved right. He wanted to pop balloons but everyone would have knows what a little boy he was.

If someone had to chop off my arm, I would make sure I got that arm to somehow fall asleep. I would get it good and fallen asleep and I would look them right in the eye while the blood was spraying all over their faces."

(from Lenny Bruce is Dead, by Jonathan Goldstein, published in 2001 by Coach House Books)