501 Minutes to Christ: Personal Essays

Poe Ballantine s second collection of personal essays follows, and expands on, his acclaimed Things I Like About America. Ballantine s world is a crazy quilt of odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer, rendered in the author s by turns absurd and poignant voice. The Irving briskly details the author s diabolic plan to punch John Irving in the nose after opening for him before an audience of 2,000 people at the prestigious Wordstock Festival. Wide-Eyed in the Gaudy Shop takes readers on a wild ride through Mexico as Ballantine meets and marries his wife Christina. Blessed Meadows for Minor Poets offers a devastating take on the author s life as his years of struggle to secure a major contract for a short story collection end in catastrophe. The writer the Seattle Times called part Huck Finn, part Hunter S. Thompson brings a blistering wit and shrewd observation to this composite portrait of an unconventional life.