501 Minutes to Christ: Personal Essays [Paperback]

Poe Ballantine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2007

Poe Ballantine’s second collection of personal essays follows, and expands on, his acclaimed Things I Like About America. Ballantine’s world is a crazy quilt of odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer, rendered in the author’s by turns absurd and poignant voice. “The Irving” briskly details the author’s diabolic plan to punch John Irving in the nose after opening for him before an audience of 2,000 people at the prestigious Wordstock Festival. “Wide-Eyed in the Gaudy Shop” takes readers on a wild ride through Mexico as Ballantine meets and marries his wife Christina. “Blessed Meadows for Minor Poets” offers a devastating take on the author’s life as his years of struggle to secure a major contract for a short story collection end in catastrophe. The writer the Seattle Times called “part Huck Finn, part Hunter S. Thompson” brings a blistering wit and shrewd observation to this composite portrait of an unconventional life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Hawthorne Books; Softcover edition (September 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976631199
• ISBN-13: 978-0976631194
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God for Poe Ballantine!, November 10, 2007

By 

Cactus Ed (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: 501 Minutes to Christ: Personal Essays (Paperback)

Poe Ballantine's latest is just as good as everything else he has written. I have followed his writings in The Sun for years, and his stories now published in books are my antidotes to despair. Poe goes to the dark and unseen sides of America and writes with amazing clarity and honesty. He knows what he is talking about. As a reader this kind of trust in a writer is essential. Reading these stories is like stepping out of your own little world for a while and into any of a million parallel universes we have always suspected were out there, somewhere, but were invisible to us. And none of this is supernatural, no UFOs or channeling of ancients warrior goddesses from long ago. It is just "ordinary" life writ large and in blazing technicolor with every word, every well-crafted sentence. It is a great skill to bring eyesight to the blind, and Poe Ballantine does this with grace. God bless him, wherever he happens to be right now.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Experiences worth reading about, September 18, 2008

By 

Bill Coan (Hortonville, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 501 Minutes to Christ: Personal Essays (Paperback)

Some writers climb mountains or traverse deserts in order to accumulate experiences worth writing about. Poe Ballantine seems to accumulate experiences worth writing about just by trying to keep body and soul together. The essays in this latest collection reflect his experiences living among the homeless in New Orleans, caretaking a piece of property in Colorado, experimenting with methamphetamines in San Diego, building radio antennas in Kansas, speaking at a literary gathering in Oregon, teaching English in Mexico, and marrying and settling down in Chadron, Nebraska. The book's title is drawn from an essay selected earlier for inclusion in The Best American Essays of 2006. If you've read Ballantine in The Atlantic Monthly Online, The Sun, or anywhere else, then you'll be pleased at the opportunity to savor his latest work in book form. If you haven't read him before, then this beautifully bound volume from Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts is a great way to get to know him.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All In a Row, November 4, 2008

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Eclectic Ear "eclectic ear" (Fond du Lac, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 501 Minutes to Christ: Personal Essays (Paperback)

I had read most of these essays over the years in the Sun Magazine but I am glad they are all in one place so that I won't have to go searching my magazine issues in search of one in particular. Poe is one of my favorite authors. His words always touch something inside of me that I didn't realize was there until he brings it to life. His words can make you laugh out loud or feel a sense of deep sadness. Thank you Poe!