No Talking to Imaginary People

I just discovered the author watching a documentary on television. Through qcurious research I learned that he lived the kind of life I sometimes envy. Seeing life in a helter-skelter way & learning about ones self. A Walk Across America was my first experience .... years ago.....reading about a vagabond traveler. I have ordered all the Poe Barrington novels I can find!

Poe is getting older and sharing in his perceptive and inimitable style some of the harder passages of his life. More fine writing here!

I was familiar with Poe Ballantine’s work from reading the Sun magazine. I enjoy his writing and his lack of pretense. Thoroughly enjoyed every page.

More food for us fans. Laughter, tears, deep thoughts cloaked in self-deprecating wit, and entertainment value in virtually every sentence. I think of these and many other Ballantine works as “autobiographical fiction,” carrying on a noble tradition indulged in by people like Twain, Bukowski, Dazai. Each story here is delivered by a narrator we’ve come to know pretty well (with the odd exception of “They Dream by the River,” where he’s a slightly different chap). Is this collection a tad more melancholy than its predecessors? I thought so, but maybe it’s just me. In any case, it all swells toward redemption and ends with a boom, or rather a beeping noise, and left me wondering what’s next. More light, I imagine, more love. Everyone needs to read Poe Ballantine.

Poe never disappoints. He is a rare kind of writer who only gets better with age.

I generally prefer Poe Ballantine's books when he's writing autobiographical non-fiction, so it was great to see him revisiting the territory of 'Things I Like about America' and '501 Minutes to Christ', in which he bums around the USA in a futile search for happiness and success. This book is a worthy, episodic follow-up to those.Ballantine has a caustic wit and is often very funny, with a great turn of phrase, but always remains likeable as his humour is most frequently turned upon himself. However, he's also quite capable of being serious, and the final story - about his father's death - is characteristically frank as well as very moving.Ballantine's world is reminiscent of Bukowski's in many ways, but thankfully free of the misogynist fantasies of his predecessor.If you haven't discovered this author yet, you're missing out on a wonderful body of work in my opinion.

I have read Poe's other travelogues and enjoyed them immenselythis one although a great read just didnt have that sense of wow for mestill a great book and worth a read but felt a little disjointed