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Down on Ponce
This cracker-noir crime novel follows a crew of eccentric career criminals as they take down a powerful group of money launderers in Atlanta.
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 1997
99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 7, 2017
An entertaining, page-turning, crime-filled, noir-ish romp through Atlanta.
August 8, 2015
It's unfortunate that this Fred Willard only wrote two books because this is about as good of a debut novel as one can read. About the only good thing from reading London Boulevard was introducing me to this book. I disdain comparisons but this really is like Elmore Leonard on meth. The plot got too convoluted for its own good near the end but I chalk that up to first experience. Again, I wish Willard had written more.
March 14, 2015
I posted this review on Amazon in 2004. My review attracted very little attention for several years, and then got 15 "unhelpful" ratings in about a week. Which is one reason my Amazon reviewer rank is > 28,000,000. :)
"In the first few chapters, a rich Republican asks the hero to kill his wife, a Republican politician induces a solitary orgasm while watching anti-abortion wackos throw fetuses at a 15-year-old girl, and (presumably) Republican businessmen refuse to tip their waitresses. I stopped reading after the narrator has a dream in which everyone in America turns into cockroaches the day after Ronald Reagan is elected. I've read and enjoyed many books where conservatives are cast as the villains, but this isn't a novel - it's a dehumanizing and contempt-filled screed. But that's just my reaction. If you enjoy books by Michael Moore or Al Franken (and many people do), you'll probably love this."
Just to be clear - the whole cockroach thing is true. The guy hates Republicans that much. If you hate as much as this guy, then definitely buy / read this book. If you need to get your hate on, Down on Ponce is the place to do it.
"In the first few chapters, a rich Republican asks the hero to kill his wife, a Republican politician induces a solitary orgasm while watching anti-abortion wackos throw fetuses at a 15-year-old girl, and (presumably) Republican businessmen refuse to tip their waitresses. I stopped reading after the narrator has a dream in which everyone in America turns into cockroaches the day after Ronald Reagan is elected. I've read and enjoyed many books where conservatives are cast as the villains, but this isn't a novel - it's a dehumanizing and contempt-filled screed. But that's just my reaction. If you enjoy books by Michael Moore or Al Franken (and many people do), you'll probably love this."
Just to be clear - the whole cockroach thing is true. The guy hates Republicans that much. If you hate as much as this guy, then definitely buy / read this book. If you need to get your hate on, Down on Ponce is the place to do it.
August 13, 2008
This is...an interesting book. Don't get me wrong, I had a GREAT time reading it - it was fun, it was quick, it made me chuckle. I just can't exactly figure out what kind of book it was! Essentially, you're following a career criminal as he gets pissed off when someone kills one of his (non-criminal) friends, so he hooks up with some other criminals and makes a plan to take down the REALLY bad guys who killed his friends. And believe it or not, hilarity ensues. The team of bad guys is even endearing, as mismatched and weird as they are, and the worse guys are absolutely horrid and nuts. So. I don't really know how to classify this book or how to determine if someone else would like it, but I definitely had a good time reading it!
April 7, 2010
I am rereading this book for my February 2010 book club meeting. Had I been part of the discussion that chose this book I would not have recommended it.
I first read the book shortly after it came out in 1997. It takes place in Atlanta in a number of locations that I used to frequent, so it is intriguing for that. It is also written by a local. However, I can not relate and I find the book filled with cliches and images I would rather not have. To sound like my mom, there is too much gratuitous bad language and ugly images. The book is a crime novel and a dirty-streets-under-belly-of-the-city crime novel so if that is your thing you might find it hilarious and enjoyable, but for me it was cliched.
I first read the book shortly after it came out in 1997. It takes place in Atlanta in a number of locations that I used to frequent, so it is intriguing for that. It is also written by a local. However, I can not relate and I find the book filled with cliches and images I would rather not have. To sound like my mom, there is too much gratuitous bad language and ugly images. The book is a crime novel and a dirty-streets-under-belly-of-the-city crime novel so if that is your thing you might find it hilarious and enjoyable, but for me it was cliched.
November 17, 2008
Atlanta. You'll never look at Ponce the same way. It's, hmm, unusual. I admit to have loved it. I'll lend it if you don't want it to belong to your shelves...
August 7, 2012
liked it. very easy fun read
especially if you grew up around ponce de Leon the street the book is named after.
a colorful and exciting place with misfits and interesting people.
especially if you grew up around ponce de Leon the street the book is named after.
a colorful and exciting place with misfits and interesting people.
June 18, 2020
I came to Fred Willard’s work back to front as it were, discovering him through his fiction before realising he was such a prolific film and TV actor. Willard only wrote two books. Both are noir crime novels and both are original, highly entertaining and well worth reading. The main characters are not so much hard-boiled as hard-bitten, they’ve made mistakes and learned from their criminal pasts, and get pulled back into the game by the lure of one last job.
Down on Ponce is the the tale of ex-dope-smuggler Sam Fuller’s time laying low on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta. A job emerges, a crew of apparently hopeless street characters assemble – a voiceless cancer survivor, a paraplegic, a madman. Together they plan to rip off the biggest crime boss on the area and escape to better lives. Of course, nothing goes to plan and their plans for a bloodless scam unravel in the face of true criminal insanity.
There’s an unexpected tenderness among all the dry wit, twists and turns, set-backs and violence. Willard’s characters care for each other, they understand they are different and not only accept each other’s differences and disadvantages, they work with them too. Down on Ponce starts to wander a little as it approaches the final acts, there are few debut novels that don’t, but it soon gets its feet back under itself for a superb ending.
Down on Ponce is the the tale of ex-dope-smuggler Sam Fuller’s time laying low on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta. A job emerges, a crew of apparently hopeless street characters assemble – a voiceless cancer survivor, a paraplegic, a madman. Together they plan to rip off the biggest crime boss on the area and escape to better lives. Of course, nothing goes to plan and their plans for a bloodless scam unravel in the face of true criminal insanity.
There’s an unexpected tenderness among all the dry wit, twists and turns, set-backs and violence. Willard’s characters care for each other, they understand they are different and not only accept each other’s differences and disadvantages, they work with them too. Down on Ponce starts to wander a little as it approaches the final acts, there are few debut novels that don’t, but it soon gets its feet back under itself for a superb ending.
February 19, 2019
this is a "caper" novel. It is a pretty fast read, with some interesting characters. i thought the end felt a little rushed, but on the whole it was fun.
it is also set near where i live, so that was neat to see in a book.
it is also set near where i live, so that was neat to see in a book.
June 24, 2022
from the criminal perspective.
July 18, 2023
At turns violent and hilarious with a cast of unique characters, Down on Ponce is wildly entertaining. I have never read a book quite like it.
August 26, 2025
Fun read
July 27, 2016
James knocks on Sam’s door and asks him to kill his wife. Sam asks, “Ever thought of divorce?” James hadn’t. Thirty thousand dollars later, Sam relents. He promptly double-crosses James, tells his wife, and keeps the cash. It’s all fun and games until somebody else kills James and his wife and burns down Sam’s mobile home.
The strong opening is followed by Sam going into hiding in plain sight on Ponce de Leon Avenue in east Atlanta. He hooks up with a crew of colorful crooks: Charley who works at a funeral parlor and drives around town in a hearse, Bob who can’t talk but writes poems, and amputee Stinky. Later they’re joined by Bug, a wisecracking lady’s man lunatic they help bust from an asylum, who may only be pretending to be crazy, but is insane enough to love killing his posse’s enemies.
We learn that people who live on the streets, especially criminals, are better adjusted than those dangerous freaks in the suburbs. That’s the order of affairs in Down on Ponce, the 1997 novel by Fred Willard. Street people’s approach to theft is individualized; suburbanites’ approach is institutionalized. This is illustrated by the savings & loan crisis that preceded the action in this book but is alluded to, and the drug trafficking and money laundering that was ongoing from the time period of the book to the present day. The cops in North Georgia don’t care because they see it as the natural evolution of moonshining, or something.
Sam figures that James was involved with a money laundering ring run by Dong Chandler. Sam’s plan is to trick Dong into believing that his crew is experienced in laundering money through the Dutch Antilles or Costa Rica. That way they can steal the money and figure out who burnt down Sam’s mobile home at the same time.
Sam is a sharp protagonist. Maybe too sharp. His foresight and leadership over the crew are on par with Robin Hood. His morals are more variable. He always stays a step ahead of his opponents, and outwits them in every conversation.
Sam’s fellow travelers are eccentric and constantly craclomg jokes. They get embroiled in random, comical situations. Willard’s writing style is entertaining and even joyful—he seems to love being in the company of the characters he creates, and it’s infectious. It’s a humorous book, and its humor helps distract from the excessive anti-suburban, anti-conservative, and anti-institutional messages of the story. The book is also so funny that after a while you stop taking the book seriously. It’s marketed as “hard-boiled” or “cracker noir,” but the levity of the constant gags undercuts the hardest edges.
The strong opening is followed by Sam going into hiding in plain sight on Ponce de Leon Avenue in east Atlanta. He hooks up with a crew of colorful crooks: Charley who works at a funeral parlor and drives around town in a hearse, Bob who can’t talk but writes poems, and amputee Stinky. Later they’re joined by Bug, a wisecracking lady’s man lunatic they help bust from an asylum, who may only be pretending to be crazy, but is insane enough to love killing his posse’s enemies.
We learn that people who live on the streets, especially criminals, are better adjusted than those dangerous freaks in the suburbs. That’s the order of affairs in Down on Ponce, the 1997 novel by Fred Willard. Street people’s approach to theft is individualized; suburbanites’ approach is institutionalized. This is illustrated by the savings & loan crisis that preceded the action in this book but is alluded to, and the drug trafficking and money laundering that was ongoing from the time period of the book to the present day. The cops in North Georgia don’t care because they see it as the natural evolution of moonshining, or something.
Sam figures that James was involved with a money laundering ring run by Dong Chandler. Sam’s plan is to trick Dong into believing that his crew is experienced in laundering money through the Dutch Antilles or Costa Rica. That way they can steal the money and figure out who burnt down Sam’s mobile home at the same time.
Sam is a sharp protagonist. Maybe too sharp. His foresight and leadership over the crew are on par with Robin Hood. His morals are more variable. He always stays a step ahead of his opponents, and outwits them in every conversation.
Sam’s fellow travelers are eccentric and constantly craclomg jokes. They get embroiled in random, comical situations. Willard’s writing style is entertaining and even joyful—he seems to love being in the company of the characters he creates, and it’s infectious. It’s a humorous book, and its humor helps distract from the excessive anti-suburban, anti-conservative, and anti-institutional messages of the story. The book is also so funny that after a while you stop taking the book seriously. It’s marketed as “hard-boiled” or “cracker noir,” but the levity of the constant gags undercuts the hardest edges.
July 10, 2009
Willard has a way of telling stories that make you yearn to be one of the truly shady people in this world. He's does great justice to the local haunts of Atlanta and will make even the most uptight folks appreciate the criminal elements of Terminus City.
Highly recommended for folks who enjoy good crime fiction.
Highly recommended for folks who enjoy good crime fiction.
March 15, 2008
Wow, this one's a bit tough to describe. Bad guys against worse bad guys? If it were a movie or tv show, you'd have to know "violence, sex, language". The strange thing is that it is a quick and very entertaining read. Total escapism.
November 17, 2011
Loved Bug! It read like a off the wall documentary drama of criminal daily life. I liked the characters and the gritty overall feel and flow. Very diverse jump from my usual reads. I would love to know whathappened to the characters!
December 11, 2013
Not my favorite genre but this was good. Parts of this novel were just hilarious and some were just outrageously sick, as, I am sure,the author intended. All in all, quite the page turner.
August 10, 2016
A fun read for those of us who take fiction more seriously than crime. Great humor, fun characters, zany plot, dumb ending. And some terrific writing from a writer I will read again.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews