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.
1127185210
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.
16.95 In Stock
Whirlaway

Whirlaway

by Poe Ballantine
Whirlaway

Whirlaway

by Poe Ballantine

Paperback

$16.95 
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Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780997068399
Publisher: Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, Incorporated
Publication date: 04/03/2018
Pages: 191
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Poe Ballantine currently lives in Chadron, Nebraska. The documentary of the same title as Ballantine’s memoir, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, won the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival Hot Doc Award as well as the Big Sky award, given to the film that captures the spirit of the American West. Michael Moore included filmmaker Dave Jannetta’s Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere at the Traverse City Film Festival and the documentary was also a finalist for the Philadelphia Geek Award. To view the trailer click here: https://youtu.be/eBvBKa4KJpg. Ballantine’s work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Sun, Kenyon Review, and The Coal City Review. In addition to garnering numerous Pushcart and O. Henry nominations, Mr. Ballantine’s work has been included in the anthologies The Best American Short Stories 1998 and The Best American Essays 2006.

Table of Contents

Chap 1) Railroaded by Luminescence

Chap 2) Mudville/I Wish It Would Rain

Chap 3) Dyskinesia

Chap 4) Life Begins at Forty-One

Chap 5) Chivalrous Deceptions

Chap 6) The Key’s in the Ashtray

Chap 7) Island of the Butterscotch Beast

Chap 8) Dr. Seuss in the Sky

Chap 9) Gigantic Australian Counterclockwise Stampedes

Chap 10) Hermaphrodites, Bikers, and French Teachers

Chap 11) Coco Puff

Chap 12) Marvelous Marvelle/Let the Sunshine in

Chap 13) Sex and Murder Self-Help Book

Chap 14) Jimmy Is in Good Hands with God

Chap 15) Beauty Chasers

Chap 16) Tales of Scottish Mastectomy

Chap 17) Bee-doo Woman from Another Dimension, Possibly Hell

Chap 18) Martha at the Apollo

Chap 19) Psychotic Reaction

Chap 20) The Missing Prostitutes

Chap 21) The Bones of La Zona Basura

Chap 22) Mo Ho

Chap 23) Whirlaway

Chap 24) Zopilote Being an Indian Word for “Vulture”

Chap 25) Flowers in the Sea

Chap 26) It Ain’t Goldilocks

Chap 27) My Boy Lollipop

Chap 28) KLIK in Canoga Park

Chap 29) Boys Love Their Mothers

Chap 30) Try a Little Tenderness

Chap 31) Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

Chap 32) Whiplash I Was Taking a Bath

Chap 33) Mister Jang-Jingler (Dance)

Chap 34) Back to the Island

Chap 35) The Giant Clam Eats Children

Chap 36) Love Does Not Experience Time

Chap 37) Give Me Stilton, Blue and Gold

Chap 38) Run Through the Jungler

What People are Saying About This

Lying - LAUREN SLATER

Ballantine’s writing is secure insecurity at its best, muscular and minimal, self-deprecating on the one hand, full of the self’s soul on the other.

Wild - CHERYL STRAYED

Poe Ballantine is brilliant.

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE - SCOTT F. PARKER

Hoping that the secret of Poe Ballantine stays secret no longer.

Above Us Only Sky and NPR Correspondent - MARION WINK

Like David Sedaris, he is an American outsider with insane comedic and storytelling gifts.

UVU REVIEW - JACK WATERS

If you see [Poe Ballantine’s] name in a byline, read it.

THE BOOK CATAPULT - SETH MARKO

Let me tell you somethin’ true, people: Poe Ballantine is the best American writer alive that you’ve definitely never heard of.

Tibetan Peach Pie - TOM ROBBINS

For readers who prefer madcap to claptrap, quixotic pranks to neurotic angst, Poe Ballantine is a literary tonic: Bittersweet, potent, and peculiarly entertaining. Poe Ballantine is the most soulful, insightful, funny, and altogether luminous “under-known” writer in America. He knocks my socks off, even when I’m barefoot.

The Free - WILLY VLAUTIN

Whirlaway is a fever dream of my favorite things: horse racing, records, booze, insanity, and women.
What a strange and crazed comedic ride. Ballantine’s writing is like no other.

Interviews

http://www.americanliteraryreview.com/reviews—interviews/glad-you-enjoyed-your-biscuits-clint-peters-interview-with-poe-ballantine

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