Poe Ballantine

The Great American Loony Bin, Horseplaying, & Record-collecting Novel: Whirlaway

The Great American Loony Bin, Horseplaying, & Record-collecting Novel

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.

A Memoir: Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere

A Memoir

FOR READERS OF IN COLD BLOOD AND MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL

This work of true crime as memoir is as much of an investigation of a shocking murder as it is a portrait of small-town Americaand the folks that make their homes there—and a deeply moving examination of parenting an autistic child

For well over twenty years, Poe Ballantine traveled America, taking odd jobs, living in small rooms, trying to make a living as a writer. At age 46, he finally settled with his Mexican immigrant wife in Chadron, Nebraska, where they built a family with their son, who was red-flagged as autistic.

But this quiet life is disruptd when one day in 2006, his neighbor, Steven Haataja, a math professor from the local state college, disappears. Ninety-five days later, the professor was found bound to a tree, burned to death in the hills behind the campus where he had taught. No one, law enforcement included, understood the circumstances. Though Ballantine had never contemplated writing mystery or true crime, this murder was too close to home to ignore.

With this intimate knowledge—and occasional friendships—with all the players, the suspects, the sheriff, and the police involved, Ballantine and his son set out together to find out what might have happened to the professor and uncover who is ultimately responsible.

A Novel: Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire

A Novel

In this follow-up to God Clobbers Us All, "it’s impossible not to be charmed by Edgar Donahoe (Publishers Weekly)," and he’s back for another misguided adventure

When Edgar is expelled from college for drunkenly bellowing expletives from a dorm window at 3:00 am, he hitchhikes to Colorado and trains as a cook. A postcard arrives from Edgar’s college buddy, Mountain Moses, inviting him to a Caribbean island. Once there Edgar cooks at the local tourist resort and falls in love with Mountain’s girl, Kate. He becomes embroiled in a love triangle and his troubles multiply as he is stalked by murderous island native Chollie Legion. Even Cinnamon Jim, the medicine man, is no help. Ultimately it takes a hurricane to blow Edgar out of this mess.

Personal Essays: 501 Minutes to Christ

Personal Essays

Poe Ballantine's second collection of personal essays follows in the tradition of Things I Like About America. Stories range from "The Irving," which details Ballantine’s diabolical plan to punch John Irving in the nose after opening for him before an audience of 2,000 people that launched the literary festival, Wordstock; to "Wide-Eyed in the Gaudy Shop," which tells how, in Mexico, the narrator met and later married his wife, Cristina; to "Blessed Meadows for Minor Poets," the devastating tale of how after years of sacrifice and persistence, Ballantine finally secured a contract with a major publisher for a short story collection that never came to fruition.

Ever present in this collection of essays are the odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer that populate Mr. Ballantine’s landscape and make his stories uniquely his own. The title story, "501 Minutes to Christ," was included in the Houghton Mifflin anthology, Best American Essays 2006.