Things I Like About America: Personal Narratives by Poe Ballantine

Rating:
Summary: Poe Ballantine deserves the respect of many
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Where did this come from?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Things I like about America
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: One Great Book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Things I like about America
Review: Poe is my newest hero. He speaks of things that anyone who has traveled America knows of. He puts it in sometimes hilarious terms, sometimes tear jerking terms. He makes being human ugly, beautiful and boring. What an amazing book. I am a new fan and I am seriously considering driving from Colorado to Nebraska to meet him. If you like this book then you are alive.