God Clobbers Us All [Paperback]

Poe Ballantine (Author)

Book Description

Series: Edgar Adventures | Publication Date: May 1, 2004

Set against the decaying halls of a San Diego rest home in the 1970s, God Clobbers Us All is the shimmering, hysterical, and melancholy account of eighteen-year-old surfer-boy orderly, Edgar Donahoe, and his struggles with romance, death, friendship, and an ill-advised affair with the wife of a maladjusted war veteran. All of Edgar's problems become mundane, however, when he and his lesbian Blackfoot nurse's aide best friend, Pat Fillmore, become responsible for the disappearance of their fellow worker, Beverley Fey, after an LSD party gone awry. Ballantine's own brand of delicious quirkiness and storytelling is smooth and compelling, and God Clobbers Us All is guaranteed to satisfy Ballantine fans as well as convert those lucky enough to be discovering his work for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Reminiscent of Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac and Barbara Ehrenreich, Ballantine’s first novel is quirky, compelling, and fun!

From the Inside Flap

SET AGAINST THE DECAYING HALLS of a San Diego rest home in the 1970s, God Clobbers Us All is the shimmering, hysterical, and melancholy account of eighteen-year-old surfer-boy orderly, Edgar Donahoe, and his struggles with romance, death, friendship, and an ill-advised affair with the wife of a maladjusted war veteran. All of Edgar's problems become mundane, however, when he and his lesbian Blackfoot nurse's aide best friend become responsible for the disappearance of their fellow worker after an LSD party gone awry. Ballantine's own brand of delicious quirkiness and storytelling is smooth and compelling, and God Clobbers Us All is guaranteed to satisfy Ballantine fans as well as convert those lucky enough to be discovering his work for the first time.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Hawthorne Books; Later printing edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971691541
• ISBN-13: 978-0971691544
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #813,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyous, heartbreaking writing, September 21, 2004

By 

Trevor (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Clobbers Us All (Paperback)

Poe Ballantine's writing breaks my heart. You'll catch yourself laughing at the little personal tragedies of his unique and vivid characters, and then sighing when you understand that life's never gonna be easy. In the end you may want to cry, feeling like you've lost your best friends. At least I did.

I can heartily recommend this book with no reservations. It's my opinion that Ballantine is one of the best writers of his generation: his prose style seems so simple and easy, which lets the reader get intimate with his characters. But at the same time the writing is very polished. It's chock full of keen observations from a writer's eye.

Go out and buy this one and then find an empty afternoon during which you can cozy up with a cup of tea and a blanket.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Never shirk a chance at an adventure, December 12, 2005

By 

Edwin F. Hughes "poeball" (Chadron, NE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God Clobbers Us All (Paperback)

Big Pat Fillmore, the lonesome snorting alcoholic Blackfoot lesbian nurse's aide, who never shirks a chance at an adventure, is the unlikely best friend of Edgar Donahoe, cerebro-cool teen acidhead surfer of 1970's San Diego suburbia. God Clobbers Us All concerns itself with these two nurse's aides and how they deal with the emotional consequences of their accidental killing of a fellow worker. Within this framework is an excellent study of young people transformed by daily exposure to the verboten death and degeneration secrets of modern western society. "Chula sits close to me and nibbles my ear. Nurse's aides, in my experience, are the most sexually active group outside of nymphomaniacs, prostitutes, and meat packers. We also party hardier per capita than any other occupation, not only because we are poor and our futures are dull, but also because we see every night firsthand the terrible and heartbreaking things that are going to happen to us when we grow old." The novel, although it may appear to romanticize libertinism, is as good a text as any on the certain fate of the counterculture epicurean. It's also chilling testimony on the places where our worn out mothers and fathers are sent. This is a very fast read with a wonderful "feel" and many places to flex your laughing muscles. The prose is so effortless it's rather easy to sail over without registering any depth. Anyone accustomed to seeing Ballantine's tough, melancholy essays in The Sun, as I note in two languidly composed reviews below, might be better served by his outstanding essay collection, Things I Like About America.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philip Marlowe on Acid, April 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: God Clobbers Us All (Paperback)

Imagine Raymond Chandler's hero reincarnated in the mid-70s as a hapless teenage surfer more interested in scoring drugs and getting girls than in solving mysteries, and you've got "God Clobbers Us All." There is a mystery at the center of this book, but what's equally compelling is the world of Edgar Donahoe and his friends, who work as orderlies and aides in a nursing home where death is a mundane occurrence, and who escape their stagnant lives through any chemical and carnal means possible. Ballantine's plotting is fast-paced and engaging, and his snappy prose is full of over-the-top metaphors reminiscent of (or in tribute to) Chandler. Irreverent and often hilarious, this is a highly entertaining book from start to finish.