One of the Guys is an earnestly satirical and picaresque novel by Robert Clark Young, published in 1999, concerning the fantastical adventures of a man posing as a chaplain on a U.S. Navy ship which goes berserk and terrorizes a number of ports in the Far East before the hopelessly alcoholic, sexed-up crew turns on itself in a paroxysm of crossing the line mania, just as the gods are about to intervene by destroying the Subic Bay Naval Base through causing Mount Pinatubo to blow up. The picaresque novel (Spanish: picaresco, from pícaro, for rogue or rascal) is a popular style of novel that originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries and has continued to influence modern literature. ... Robert Clark Young, American novelist, born 1960. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... A chaplain is a priest or military unit, a private chapel, a ship, a prison, a hospital, a parliament and so on. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... The ceremony of crossing the line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy and other navies which commemorates a sailors first crossing of the equator. ... Mount Pinatubo is an active volcano located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, at the intersection of the borders of the provinces of Zambales, Bataan, and Pampanga. ...

Though predominantly a satire, the book also works on levels of symbolism and allegory. The hero, Miles Derry, a recovering alcoholic who is attempting to improve his destitute condition by impersonating a gay Methodist chaplain, is an existential and self-actualizing figure who represents the American Dream of bettering oneself, no matter how ludicrous the means or the results. While the narrative tone manages to be humorous and realistic at the same time, Derry's journey itself can be said to be surreal as he strives to survive aboard a Navy ship that symbolizes the corruption of American institutions. In this sense, he is the heir to Tom Jones and Barry Lyndon, and one of the few modern representations of the picaresque hero, whose roguishness, low birth, and survival by wits alone serve as ironic counterpoint to the real targets of the satire, the corrupt society and institutional abuses symbolized by the whirl of madness around him. An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. ... Existentialism is a philosophical movement emphasizing individualism, individual freedom, and subjectivity. ... The American dream is the idea (often associated with the Protestant work ethic) held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity. ... A cow on a pole. ... The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (often known simply as Tom Jones) is a comic novel by Henry Fielding. ... Barry Lyndon is a 1975 film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. ...

Despite the book's multiple layers, many critics and readers have enjoyed it on the level of a tall tale. Critic Josip Novakovich, who compared One of the Guys to A Confederacy of Dunces, has said "If you read the book in public, you will laugh so much and go through so many facial expressions that you'll run the risk of having the police called to check you out." A tall tale is a story that claims to explain the reason for some natural phenomenon, or sometimes illustrates how skilled/intelligent/powerful the subject of the tale was. ... A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, but not published during his lifetime. ...

In a final irony, after the initial publication of One of the Guys by HarperCollins in 1999, the book was held before the U.S. Congress as obscene by the American Family Association in a failed effort to defund the National Endowment for the Arts. Collins was a Scottish printing company founded by a schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819. ... The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative, fundamentalist Christian non-profit organization founded in 1977 by Rev. ... The National Endowment for the Arts is a United States federally funded program that offers support and funding for projects that exhibit artistic excellence. ...