Things I Like About America: Personal Narratives by Poe Ballantine [Paperback]

Poe Ballantine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Poe Ballantine’s risky, personal essays are populated with odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer. He takes us along on his Greyhound journey through small town America (including a detour to Mexico) exploring what it means to be human. Written with piercing intimacy and self-effacing humor, Ballantine’stories provide entertainment, social commentary, and completely compelling slices of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Over the years, the peripatetic Ballantine has logged countless miles roaming from California to the Midwest to Mexico. In a collection that may make some readers wish they could pack their portable typewriters and head for the nearest Greyhound station, he reflects on his wanderlust in 11 chronicles of odd jobs and odder adventures. But though Ballantine's tales of a life spent answering the call of the road initially seem extremely appealing, they ultimately tend to fall flat. "She's Got Barney Rubble Eyes," the story of his adolescent love affair with a nymphomaniac, kleptomaniac older woman, has its good parts, for example, but Ballantine doesn't let his adult wisdom shine through, and his recounting of his drugs-and-drink days feels like a reach for street cred. When Ballantine avoids indulging his penchant for the gritty, even prurient, his essays are more successful. His pursuit of smalltown America and reasonable employ, as well as his life between the thin walls of motels and boarding houses, are great topics. Ballantine's at his best when describing what it takes to survive, financially and otherwise, as a modern-day nomad. But he provides little sense of context, or of building his narratives to a rewarding conclusion and though the author obviously has the material for an excellent portrait of America, the anticipated insights and wealth of description born of such travel and adventure simply aren't quite here.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

This long awaited debut collection of nonfiction stories by Poe Ballantine is sure to please fans who have been reading Ballantine’s essays in various publications over the years.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hawthorne Books; Later printing edition (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971691517
• ISBN-13: 978-0971691513
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poe Ballantine deserves the respect of many, October 19, 2002

By 

Minor Character - See all my reviews

This review is from: Things I Like About America: Personal Narratives by Poe Ballantine (Paperback)

I've been reading Poe Ballantine's work for almost ten years in The Sun magazine, a monthly that prides itself and proves itself on publishing the best writers in the country and abroad. It is a magazine that mimics somewhat Poe's life: both are relatively obscure but necessary. He has been traveling America and Mexico for two decades in a self-fashioned schooling of the road. He eschewed the standard for entering college when young and instead began a series of jobs, mostly cooking at greasy spoons, across the body of the continent. He did so to train himself as a writer, to chuck everything most people take for granted, like regular, sad career-goaled work, steady long term housing, companionship; he chucked it all to squeeze out living words. Poe Ballantine has succeeded. He's as real as a sunburn and the salve to quell the burning. This book of essays is bound to become a classic of road literature and self-examination. It is funny, sad, raw, disturbing, warm and occasionally painful. It is a book I read in one sitting and wept after. This man has taken his life, laid it out for us to read about and in turn held up the sharpest mirror man has viewed to see his true, troubled condition.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where did this come from?, November 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Things I Like About America: Personal Narratives by Poe Ballantine (Paperback)

Like an old friend known forever, this book is a gift. Out of nowhere (accidentally stumbled across in THE SUN Magazine) I have a new hero. Brave enough to do what we with our boring jobs and routine lives dream of, Poe is todays Kerouac. A rambler who is real and possesses a remarkable and honest delivery across the page, Poe takes us next door to a neighborhood and a lifestyle unknown. How he can open up this much is exceptional. From a regular reader I give all I have to offer back- "Things I Like About America" has landed solidly in my top 5.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Great Book, October 24, 2002

By 

Barbara Kies (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Things I Like About America: Personal Narratives by Poe Ballantine (Paperback)

Poe Ballentine's work shows sensitivity, humor, compassion, and insight. These personal narratives make the everyday interesting and the exotic familiar. I am a fan of his writing, and this book certainly contains some of the best examples of his unique style. If everything in it is true, Poe Ballentine has taken extraordinary risks while becoming the writer he is today. If he made it all up, he sure tells fascinating stories. I bought an extra copy for a friend who appreciates good books.