Things I Like About America: Personal Narratives

by Poe Ballantine

Begin with a modern day Jack Kerouac, add a dash of David Sedaris, a pinch of Barbara Ehrenreich and a bit of Scott Carrier, and you have the formula for a compelling collection of personal essays by Poe Ballantine. These true stories of odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer chronicle a nomad in search of a mythic America that exists only in his own mind. Ballantine takes us along as he rides the Greyhound bus from small town to small town as he struggles to exist on minimum wage while trying to find time to write. Written with piercing intimacy and self-effacing humor, Ballantine's stories provide entertainment, social commentary, and poignant slices of life.


Description from inside jacket

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Short Stories, Biography

221 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Poe 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]

Reviews

[Meagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hate to break it to you, but the great Beat writer on-the-road adventure may be just as full of numbing mindless cycles as your fine upstanding 9-to-5. Don't worry, kids - Uncle Poe will let you down easy. You know all those book reviews that say "hilarious and heartbreaking"? This book actually is both hilarious and heartbreaking. The title essay will tear your heart out and stomp that sucker flat and then you will probably move to Mexico. And why not? This book actually made me laugh out loud on the bus. And then I almost cried.

[M.R. Dowsing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is brilliant. Poe Ballantine spent many years of his life travelling around America from one shithole town and dead end job to another whilst struggling to become a writer. This book is basically a series of non-fiction short stories about his experiences. It's funny, moving, brutally honest and very perceptive. He's also a blackbelt with a simile. It's similar to Bukowski but, dare one say it - better! Despite the title, the book seems more like a portrait of everything that's wrong with America, although it's not without hope. I think I've found my new favourite author, and I will definitely be reading all of his other books very soon.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have little to say about Poe Ballantine except that he's brilliant. He's got the heart of a beat, but avoids their unreadable pretension. He can turn a phrase that is aching or hilarious, but it will always come out beautiful.

The title of this book is misleading. True, most of it takes place in America, as Poe bounces from one one-horse-town to the next, but even in the vignette the book is named for, there is but a superficial list at best. It's more about the crushing nature of what America has become, the sameness of Everycity, USA, and yet as beat down as his lifestyle keeps him, there's still something grand about his nomadic life... of course, that could be in part due to knowing that could never be me... I could never be so diligent, so dedicated, so free. Still, for anyone realistic, I can't recommend this author enough.

[Daniel Polansky]

For a long time I held as my life’s ambition to be lost, to look at unfamiliar scenery and strange people, a very tiny thing carried onward by the wind, counting each mile and footstep. It’s not at all a rare preoccupation, and Poe Ballantine, and the fellow who gave me this Poe Ballantine book, are likewise devotees of this smiling, silent god. These are a collection of shorts about being on busses and working shitty jobs so that you have the money to get on other busses. They are well enough written but mostly I can’t say I found myself stopping in awe at the prose. Ballantine’s hook is that he is/was a real no shit legitimate vagabond, not a put on, and I respect that even if I can’t do it anymore. Anyway, I liked this fine. Will I Keep It: Yeah, but only because it a friend’s favorite book.

[Práxedes Rivera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Poe Ballantine's prose since my first encounter with his work in The Sun magazine. His stories and essays are honest, witty, and educational. This particular collection is alright, but not his best work. It is an entertaining read for sure, but I suspect some of his more recent work is better.

[Anna Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is more beauty in one Poe Ballentine sentence than there are in many books.

[Geeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things I like about this book:

1. It's well written. The writing is deceptively simple. No tricks, nothing fancy (except the list in the title story).

2. It surprised me. Ballantine is a drifter, a drinker, and kind of a loser. At first I thought this would be a book for young men who want to be writers. And to some degree, there is something romantic about the life he leads. If I'd known people were comparing him to Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac, I would not have read the book. But Ballantine's acute and empathetic observations about other people and his lack of sentimentality won me over.

3. Ballantine's resourcefulness. He works menial jobs, saves his money, quits and then moves to another town, where he finds another menial job. With his savings, he moves to Mexico for a few months and writes. Then the cycle starts again.

[John Spiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poe Ballantine is a professional wanderer, adrift in middle America (but sometimes wanders down to Mexico), writing brilliantly about the people he meets, finding yet another cheap apartment or hotel room, traveling on Greyhound bus rides, small town life, and shitty jobs. His observations can quickly swing from extremely funny to poignant. Most of all you get a sense of his honesty as a writer, often sharply self-critical (at times when characters seem bizarre to the extreme I wonder, 'Is he making this stuff up?' but it doesn't really matter). Altho not intended to be about anything at all, mostly his books are about alienation, and in particular the alienation of life in middle America (the book's title is irony). I strongly recommend this book of essays.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays held some real truths for me. I really liked the one where he travels around the country trying to find a place that feels like "home"- I admire his willingness to look, even if he never finds it. He is obviously depressed a lot of the time, and in the depths of his despair I wish I knew him so I could invite him over for a nice dinner and show him it's not all bad news and assholes. Overall a worthwhile read.

[Michael Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade A.

Dear Poe Ballantine:

I have a man-crush on you, dude! I could read what you write all day and all night long. You write like you've been there -- oh wait, you have. How you do what you do -- dead-end jobs, no-name places, oddball friends -- I don't know, but I relish how you write about your experiences. You're funny, sad, poignant, and weird all rolled into one and I've just ordered two more of your books.

Keep going, sir... you're a national/international treasure!

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim and so glad I did, really enjoyed this book. Ballantine writes well without relying on any bells and whistles within his prose; the text is very simple, powerfully so, and the stories will stay with you for a long time afterward.

Most certainly going to look out his other works now.

[Aaron Ritchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read many of these essays in The Sun Magazine and years later, were still haunted by their desperation and deep feeling. I was so glad to revisit them in a collection by my favorite literary author. Poe Ballantine writes with his head and hands on fire and he's never better than when he is chronicling his journey across America. I would highly recommend this to everyone.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poe Ballantine is a very good writer, and he does a great job of blending wordsmithery with grit, the strong reminder that the world is full of people who are just trying to make rent, often moving from town to town, traveling light, searching the want ads for work and a roof. His essays are very good.

[Emily Macrander Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is probably one of the best pieces of writing I've come across lately. His writing made me feel good about reading. It's like food for the soul. I'm really thinking I want to read more of his works.

[Brian Want · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit of Bukowski, without the persistent arrogance. A bit of Sedaris, but more earnest? A little of Bryson but without the uppity crankiness? Ballantine is his own more appealing "thing." His search for a place, even a dynamic, of belonging unifies these likable essays.

[Duncan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Short stories about people living sad, depressing lives. I liked Ballantine's memoir 'Love and terror…' as the sustained narrative had humorous elements and characters. This didn't, so I didn't finish it.

[Andrew Guttridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored the stories in this collection. There was not one weak one and I was gutted when I had finished it.

I've only ever been to large famous American cities and yet I could picture each and every town and city I would not be able to locate on the map, thanks to the author's writing.

[Sutter Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't recall how I turned onto Ballantine a few years ago, I think after I read The Tin House anthology and started reading Tin House on line.
Then I started reading everything I could about Ballantine, interviews and such (he was freaked out when invited to be a judge of a major writers' competition), then ordered three of his books. This one my favorite, and agree with all the 4 and 5 star reviews here.
I was thinning out my shelves this past week, and decided to sell them, but two used book stores had never heard of him, and not into "literary" writers it seems. San Luis Obispo County, Central California Coast, doesn't seem to have many readers of what I suppose is called "literary" fiction. SLO town for sure. Sad.
So I'll keep them. They're thin, don't take up much room.
This one was my favorite, I think, but will need to thumb through the others.
I just added two more of his to my To Read list.

[Steve Chilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up as a makeweight in a Waterstones 3for2 purchase. Lightweight true stories of the authors life in America's underclass. Pick up and put down stuff, ideal for reading in lunch hours at work, which is predominantly what I did. Might be tempted to pick up his "God clobbers us all" sometime, which sounds interesting from the extract included at the end of this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It got slightly boring in parts, but overall it was a unique format, and may have made you laugh or think of you own small town values. It also made me want to not be tied down, and to go out to see what others are doing and thinking out there.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to love reading Poe Ballentine's essays in Sun Magazine, back in the day, and was delighted to find that he now had actual books out. He's a gloomy realist that still somehow reminds me that there is beauty even in the dark places.

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the title fool you...it's IRONIC. These stories were really good; delightfully bawdy and unpretentious.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

i've got a word crush on poe ballantine.

[Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yep, still love Poe Ballantine's writing.

[martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good essays, tightly written. There is a sameness about them, but that's ok.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

You must read Poe Ballantine. I'm really not kidding.

[Herzog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not especially interesting to me. The narrator reminds me of an adolescent (though in his 40's). Compared to someone like Adam Haslett, the work is rather primitive.

[Ian]

Recommended.

[Shannon Judkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly entertaining and thoughtful set of essays written by a man who wanders and writes and is seeking. I've read this one again and again.

[Sidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Brilliant.