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Whirlaway
Eddie Plum, who insists he’s been unjustifiably committed to a California psychiatric hospital, manages to finally escape after fourteen years of incarceration to start his life anew.
On the run, he holes up in a sheltered barrio on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean owned by his wealthy but unsympathetic father. Here he meets Sweets, the telepathic dog, laments the loss of Sofia, his madhouse lover, and plays the horses at the Del Mar Racetrack. Eventually he meets up with an old friend, Shelly Hubbard, a fellow horseplayer, record collector/dealer, and hardcore loner, who tells him about his brother, Donny, dead at the age of eighteen from a tragic dive off a thirty-foot La Jolla sea cliff known as the Clam.
Eddie discovers a family secret and wants to help, but by then he’s already embroiled in the psychotic incident with the Tijuana prostitutes, the madhouse lover, and the police, who are hot on his tail. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride has nothing on Whirlaway , a hilarious novel of escaped mental patients, horseplayers, and record collectors.
On the run, he holes up in a sheltered barrio on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean owned by his wealthy but unsympathetic father. Here he meets Sweets, the telepathic dog, laments the loss of Sofia, his madhouse lover, and plays the horses at the Del Mar Racetrack. Eventually he meets up with an old friend, Shelly Hubbard, a fellow horseplayer, record collector/dealer, and hardcore loner, who tells him about his brother, Donny, dead at the age of eighteen from a tragic dive off a thirty-foot La Jolla sea cliff known as the Clam.
Eddie discovers a family secret and wants to help, but by then he’s already embroiled in the psychotic incident with the Tijuana prostitutes, the madhouse lover, and the police, who are hot on his tail. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride has nothing on Whirlaway , a hilarious novel of escaped mental patients, horseplayers, and record collectors.
- GenresFictionContemporaryHumor
191 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 3, 2018
11 people are currently reading
510 people want to read
About the author
Poe Ballantine
21 books125 followersPoe Ballantine is a fiction and nonfiction writer known for his novels and especially his essays, many of which appear in The Sun. His second novel, Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire, won Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year. The odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer that populate Ballantine’s work often draw comparisons to the life and work of Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac.
One of Ballantine’s short stories, The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue, was included in Best American Short Stories 1998 and one of his essays, 501 Minutes to Christ, appeared in Best American Essays 2006. [wikipedia]
One of Ballantine’s short stories, The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue, was included in Best American Short Stories 1998 and one of his essays, 501 Minutes to Christ, appeared in Best American Essays 2006. [wikipedia]
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 19, 2018
This novel is about an escaped mental patient’s search for happiness. I met Ballantine at his reading a couple days ago and picked up this book, so reading it felt like I was reading the novel of a friend. I like how his writing feels honest, like he’s ripping off his skin for us. And I love the creativity and surprises in his writing, in the words and phrases he chooses. If you like Kesey, Vonnegut, Updike, Pynchon... mixing pop culture and name-brand consumer products with drugs, surreal experiences, and mental illness.... you’ll probably like Whirlaway!
May 19, 2018
What a weird and fun read. It was just dark enough and there was a so much humanity in the madness. I would be reading along and scan over something that completely shifted my entire perception of the book which was a constant reminder not to glaze over anything. I had a lot of fun constantly trying to figure out the mystery of what was true and what was perception, only coming to the end and realizing it didn't matter.
January 11, 2019
Who is Poe Ballantine? Chances are, you’ve never heard of him. So why are heavy-weight writers Cheryl Strayed, Lauren Slater and Tom Robbins all praising this obscure writer? Go ahead, start Googling. While you won’t find this Nebraskan-living, cigarette-smoking, past-middle-aged writer on The New York Times bestseller list, Ballantine is a whip-smart storyteller.
Best-known for his memoir Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, Ballantine is frequently compared to Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski for his sometimes-drug-induced and alcoholic-loving characters set in stories with the thematic default of drifting and driving.
Ballantine’s third book of fiction Whirlaway, the Great American Loony Bin, Horseplaying & Record-Collecting Novel, is exactly what it sounds like – a swish swashing, wringing out of dirty laundry. With chapter titles like “Railroaded by Luminescence” and “Hermaphrodites, Bikers, and French Teachers,” this gritty, intimate, funny tale will have you questioning either the sanity or the genius of Ballantine all the way through.
Told from the point of view of the incredulous Eddie Plum, Whirlaway opens at Napa State Hospital, a high-security psychiatric institution. Plum, a self-confessed schizophrenic on a bucketload of meds, insists that he’s been wrongly institutionalized despite his dogged refusal to comply with hospital rules. Although the reader may not trust or even like the narrator, it’s hard not to be amused by him.
“I was even more outraged at getting thrown into a unit with sexual predators. And since I wasn’t, had never been, and would never be a sexual predator, I refused on principle to take the class on sexual harassment.”
Plum’s indignation was in part because he believed he was important. “I had invented the now widely used track classification system that distinguishes primodrome, mezzodrome, and llamadrome, or high, middle, and cheap purse tracks. In case you are not acquainted with horseracing, the system is called the ‘Plum Variable’ or simply ‘the Plum,’ as Andrew Beyer’s homologous speed figures have simply become ‘the Beyer.’”
After fourteen years living in a state of medicated hell, Plum breaks out of the hospital with the help of his psychologist, Jangler – who turns out isn’t really a psychologist but an actor who creates roles for himself to get jobs.
Jangler tells Plum, “In the last decade I’ve been a trial lawyer, the mayor of Reno, and the captain of an oil tanker. Before that I was a literature professor at Tulane. Certain jobs are all about presentation. I’m thinking about becoming a cosmologist next, all you have to say is ‘quantum vacuum field’ and the audience is yours.”
It’s after Plum’s escape when the novel really takes off. Plum contacts his wealthy, estranged father, “a notable southern California horse trainer who’d won both the Santa Anita Derby and the Del Mar Futurity twice, and who had also at one time been the largest grower of poinsettias in the world,” who lets his escapee-son hide out in an old cabin that was built for hired help. It’s in this outpost where we are introduced to “a big dog, half St. Bernard, half pit bull, a giant barrel-chested, stumpy-legged orange and white lummox who looked like something out of Tolkien or Where the Wild Things Are.” Meet “Sweets” – the bilingual telepathic dog who helps Plum heal his mind.
It can’t get any crazier, right? Wrong. With no money, Plum decides to visit the horse racetrack where he reconnects with Shelly Hubbard, who claims he suffers from multiple personality disorder and makes a hefty profit as a record collector. Plum tells us that Hubbard “was as much as a screwball and more of an outsider than I was.” The two become fast friends, bonding over their addiction to gambling on horses.
Plum takes us on a rollicking adventure that often includes disturbing moments, including the murders of Tijuana prostitutes, the discovery that Hubbard has kept the steel cage his parents imprisoned him in as a child, and the mystery surrounding the death of Hubbard’s younger brother Donny who jumped off a cliff in La Jolla.
Plum says, “Pain, like smell and flavor, is a form of memory. You can feel the warmth of a loving house and in places like psychiatric hospitals and halfway houses and The Hubbard Museum of Pain you can feel its inimical opposite.”
The author, who admits that he has suffered from his own mental health challenges, writes his characters with high doses of insecurity and vulnerability, who suffer as much from what they imagine as they do from reality. Amusing and sometimes heartbreaking, Whirlaway is a brilliant story about the internal journeys of the wackiest of characters.
Best-known for his memoir Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, Ballantine is frequently compared to Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski for his sometimes-drug-induced and alcoholic-loving characters set in stories with the thematic default of drifting and driving.
Ballantine’s third book of fiction Whirlaway, the Great American Loony Bin, Horseplaying & Record-Collecting Novel, is exactly what it sounds like – a swish swashing, wringing out of dirty laundry. With chapter titles like “Railroaded by Luminescence” and “Hermaphrodites, Bikers, and French Teachers,” this gritty, intimate, funny tale will have you questioning either the sanity or the genius of Ballantine all the way through.
Told from the point of view of the incredulous Eddie Plum, Whirlaway opens at Napa State Hospital, a high-security psychiatric institution. Plum, a self-confessed schizophrenic on a bucketload of meds, insists that he’s been wrongly institutionalized despite his dogged refusal to comply with hospital rules. Although the reader may not trust or even like the narrator, it’s hard not to be amused by him.
“I was even more outraged at getting thrown into a unit with sexual predators. And since I wasn’t, had never been, and would never be a sexual predator, I refused on principle to take the class on sexual harassment.”
Plum’s indignation was in part because he believed he was important. “I had invented the now widely used track classification system that distinguishes primodrome, mezzodrome, and llamadrome, or high, middle, and cheap purse tracks. In case you are not acquainted with horseracing, the system is called the ‘Plum Variable’ or simply ‘the Plum,’ as Andrew Beyer’s homologous speed figures have simply become ‘the Beyer.’”
After fourteen years living in a state of medicated hell, Plum breaks out of the hospital with the help of his psychologist, Jangler – who turns out isn’t really a psychologist but an actor who creates roles for himself to get jobs.
Jangler tells Plum, “In the last decade I’ve been a trial lawyer, the mayor of Reno, and the captain of an oil tanker. Before that I was a literature professor at Tulane. Certain jobs are all about presentation. I’m thinking about becoming a cosmologist next, all you have to say is ‘quantum vacuum field’ and the audience is yours.”
It’s after Plum’s escape when the novel really takes off. Plum contacts his wealthy, estranged father, “a notable southern California horse trainer who’d won both the Santa Anita Derby and the Del Mar Futurity twice, and who had also at one time been the largest grower of poinsettias in the world,” who lets his escapee-son hide out in an old cabin that was built for hired help. It’s in this outpost where we are introduced to “a big dog, half St. Bernard, half pit bull, a giant barrel-chested, stumpy-legged orange and white lummox who looked like something out of Tolkien or Where the Wild Things Are.” Meet “Sweets” – the bilingual telepathic dog who helps Plum heal his mind.
It can’t get any crazier, right? Wrong. With no money, Plum decides to visit the horse racetrack where he reconnects with Shelly Hubbard, who claims he suffers from multiple personality disorder and makes a hefty profit as a record collector. Plum tells us that Hubbard “was as much as a screwball and more of an outsider than I was.” The two become fast friends, bonding over their addiction to gambling on horses.
Plum takes us on a rollicking adventure that often includes disturbing moments, including the murders of Tijuana prostitutes, the discovery that Hubbard has kept the steel cage his parents imprisoned him in as a child, and the mystery surrounding the death of Hubbard’s younger brother Donny who jumped off a cliff in La Jolla.
Plum says, “Pain, like smell and flavor, is a form of memory. You can feel the warmth of a loving house and in places like psychiatric hospitals and halfway houses and The Hubbard Museum of Pain you can feel its inimical opposite.”
The author, who admits that he has suffered from his own mental health challenges, writes his characters with high doses of insecurity and vulnerability, who suffer as much from what they imagine as they do from reality. Amusing and sometimes heartbreaking, Whirlaway is a brilliant story about the internal journeys of the wackiest of characters.
November 4, 2018
Anyone who knows Poe Ballantine’s work will likely be surprised by this novel. Most of what he’s written to date lives in the sincere, straightforward realm of memoir or autobiographical fiction. He’s known as funny, smart, and often heartbreaking. Whirlaway, however, fits more in the category of Fight Club than autobiography. It’s a trippy story told by an unreliable narrator. The question of what is and isn’t real is a tough one here. I’ve read the novel twice in its entirety, and I’ve taught it to two sections of undergraduate fiction writers. Only after leading discussions, pulling things apart and putting them back together, have I come to a satisfying interpretation. What follows is that interpretation. Warning: spoilers ahead.
Eddie Plum (the narrator), his savior Jangler the fake psychiatrist, and Plum’s lover Sofia are inventions of the author of the book-within-a-book, Whirlaway, a self-help murder novel being written in the computer room of a maximum-security forensic hospital, where its author is confined. The psychic dog is also an invention, along with “the Island” and its residents as well as the sexy racetrack woman. Shelly, treated as the subject of the story and not its teller, is in fact the inmate and the author. He invented Eddie as a more attractive first-person stand in. Shelly's part of the story is essentially true, which is why it feels true: the abuse-filled childhood, his idolization of serial killers, his doomed brother and the guilt that stems from that tragedy, and, sadly, the murdered women of Tijuana. All the stuff about horse racing and record collecting comes across as authentic because these were Shelly’s hobby and livelihood while he was out in the world. Throughout the writing of the novel, however, Shelly is locked up for committing the TJ murders. The book, true to its own word, is about healing, or self-help, and the act of writing it is an act of self-healing for Shelly. The crucial moment of the novel comes when Shelly, in the guise of Plum, revisits through the imaginative act of writing the sites and instances of his murders, but this time he does not kill the women. Instead, he recognizes them as real humans, gives them generous tips for their time, and lets them go. In this way, the novel achieves a happy ending, even though Shelly will never be set free. He will, perhaps, manage to get transferred to an easier place to do his time, and that's about as much as we can hope for.
I highly recommend this novel, both for the fun of the moment-by-moment scenes and progress of the plot, and for the deeper enjoyment of its hidden workings. If what I wrote above sounds unbearably heavy, the book reads light, infused with Ballantine’s trademark goofiness. This curious blend of horror and hijinks elevates the novel to the level of literature.
Eddie Plum (the narrator), his savior Jangler the fake psychiatrist, and Plum’s lover Sofia are inventions of the author of the book-within-a-book, Whirlaway, a self-help murder novel being written in the computer room of a maximum-security forensic hospital, where its author is confined. The psychic dog is also an invention, along with “the Island” and its residents as well as the sexy racetrack woman. Shelly, treated as the subject of the story and not its teller, is in fact the inmate and the author. He invented Eddie as a more attractive first-person stand in. Shelly's part of the story is essentially true, which is why it feels true: the abuse-filled childhood, his idolization of serial killers, his doomed brother and the guilt that stems from that tragedy, and, sadly, the murdered women of Tijuana. All the stuff about horse racing and record collecting comes across as authentic because these were Shelly’s hobby and livelihood while he was out in the world. Throughout the writing of the novel, however, Shelly is locked up for committing the TJ murders. The book, true to its own word, is about healing, or self-help, and the act of writing it is an act of self-healing for Shelly. The crucial moment of the novel comes when Shelly, in the guise of Plum, revisits through the imaginative act of writing the sites and instances of his murders, but this time he does not kill the women. Instead, he recognizes them as real humans, gives them generous tips for their time, and lets them go. In this way, the novel achieves a happy ending, even though Shelly will never be set free. He will, perhaps, manage to get transferred to an easier place to do his time, and that's about as much as we can hope for.
I highly recommend this novel, both for the fun of the moment-by-moment scenes and progress of the plot, and for the deeper enjoyment of its hidden workings. If what I wrote above sounds unbearably heavy, the book reads light, infused with Ballantine’s trademark goofiness. This curious blend of horror and hijinks elevates the novel to the level of literature.
July 23, 2020
I’ve read most of Poe Ballantine’a books and he is majorly featured in a magazine I subscribe to. I’m more of a fan of his essays and short stories (was a fan of a collection he did called Things I like About America). A modern day philosopher somewhat in the vein of Kerouac, Bukowski and Henry Miller.
He’s got some great insight that comes through in these characters struggles, who live in a very bizarre world, which includes talking dogs and other things I don’t want to spoil.
It’s probably better than a 3 star book, unfortunately due to my own distractions, I had trouble focusing and getting into what should have been a 2 or 3 day read and really didn’t get on a roll until about halfway through.
He’s got some great insight that comes through in these characters struggles, who live in a very bizarre world, which includes talking dogs and other things I don’t want to spoil.
It’s probably better than a 3 star book, unfortunately due to my own distractions, I had trouble focusing and getting into what should have been a 2 or 3 day read and really didn’t get on a roll until about halfway through.
February 26, 2019
Imagine you're a cartoon character in a cartoon world. Everything would be the same, only different. You, and your world would be slightly tilted. For instance, your dog wouldn't be able to drive a car, or handicap a horserace, but you would have telepathic conversations. Tilted. And a little more colorful - technicolor. This book, in its wholly believable tilt, filled with memorable and sympathetic characters, fabulous (in the most interesting meaning of the word) settings and situations is a total delight. Poe Ballantine gives us a world a-tilt, complete with telepathic dog, that occasionally had me leaning against a wall to regain my balance, but never shook me out of the dream he creates, and for that, high praise.
April 28, 2020
I love all of Poe’s previous novels (God Clobbers Us All, Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere) and Whirlaway is no exception.
Since you’re here you should also consider checking out his essay collections: Things I Like About America, 501 Minutes to Christ, Guidelines for Mountain Lion Safety, No Talking to Imaginary People.
I look back on each of Poe’s books as one might look back on an exceptionally good meal. His stories possess a lyrical rhythm that cuts through the gimcrack.
Since you’re here you should also consider checking out his essay collections: Things I Like About America, 501 Minutes to Christ, Guidelines for Mountain Lion Safety, No Talking to Imaginary People.
I look back on each of Poe’s books as one might look back on an exceptionally good meal. His stories possess a lyrical rhythm that cuts through the gimcrack.
May 22, 2019
I love Poe Ballantine- his sentences sing!
Ballantine's prose moves quickly - like my brain- every line shooting you down another rabbit hole. His descriptors are unexpected. His sentences sing! It's a welcome departure from the superfluous stuff that passes for popular literature these days. If you haven't already, read more of his stories. You'll be laughing and crying at the absurdity of life.
Ballantine's prose moves quickly - like my brain- every line shooting you down another rabbit hole. His descriptors are unexpected. His sentences sing! It's a welcome departure from the superfluous stuff that passes for popular literature these days. If you haven't already, read more of his stories. You'll be laughing and crying at the absurdity of life.
May 17, 2020
i read an an interview with this man in the sun and was impressed withhis way with words and his humility.
the book opens with him in a violent mental ward andspins out from there, with a psychiatrist helping him escape and his adventures on the outside. it definitely kept me entertained and onto the next chapter. a fun ride.
the book opens with him in a violent mental ward andspins out from there, with a psychiatrist helping him escape and his adventures on the outside. it definitely kept me entertained and onto the next chapter. a fun ride.
March 17, 2018
Another fun novel - the story meanders from a horrific mental health institution to the horse track to a seemingly haunted house while following a lost soul trying to find himself. As always, the prose is like maple candy: rich, delicious, and worth savoring in small bites.
September 26, 2018
Poe Ballantine is a genius. Read his books.
July 6, 2018
Lives up to the billing - "The great American loony-bin, horse playing & record-collecting novel.
August 24, 2018
Found it very enjoyable. Helped me to forget how far away from home and my loving family that I am.
November 27, 2018
Could Poe Ballantine be picking up where Denis Johnson left off? I hope so.
February 14, 2019
wtf was up with the ending? solid novel up until then.
July 6, 2022
3.5 stars: A sort of comedic take on an escaped mental institute patient with some very odd characters and circumstances. It’s clever and started out strong, but meandered until slamming into a too tidy ending. Its like the author got to a point where he was like, fuck it, I don’t know where this is going or who I want to make the murderer so I’ll just end here with happily ever after and all that, but with a little twist. I still like the writing style, but I would recommend his Love and Terror memoir over this.
May 12, 2021
Befuddled
I could hardly put this book down although I was befuddled often ! Was I looking for something less fanciful???? Or did I miss the whole gist of the story??? I liked the "suspence" of the meanderings of the story teller!!!! I'm just not sure why??
I could hardly put this book down although I was befuddled often ! Was I looking for something less fanciful???? Or did I miss the whole gist of the story??? I liked the "suspence" of the meanderings of the story teller!!!! I'm just not sure why??
June 21, 2018
This is a fine novel. It’s warm, engaging, and unusual. I enjoyed it very much.
July 22, 2018
A little too strange for my tastes.
September 3, 2018
Loved it! An original voice with an original story. Can't wait to read some of his earlier books now.
January 26, 2019
*3.5 stars. Ballantine’s writing is so wonderful but this novel was too disjointed and lacking some of the depth of his best works.
June 19, 2021
Artistic rambling
If you like a first person, artistic, rambling account of things with minimal plot this is for you. Could have been better in the end but various events in the middle held me through.
If you like a first person, artistic, rambling account of things with minimal plot this is for you. Could have been better in the end but various events in the middle held me through.
February 5, 2026
Take a chance!!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews