Darryl Ponicsan's Books

Last Flag Flying

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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Now a major movie starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne, directed by Richard Linklater! Darryl Ponicsan's debut novel The Last Detail was named one of the best of the year and widely acclaimed, catapulting him to fame when it was first published. The story of two career sailors assigned to escort a young seaman from Norfolk to the naval prison in Portsmouth, New Hampshire—and of the mayhem that ensues—was made into an award-winning movie starring Jack Nicholson. Last Flag Flying, set thirty-four years after the events of The Last Detail, brings together the same beloved characters—Billy Bad-Ass Buddusky, Mule Mulhall, and Meadows—to reprise the same journey but under very different circumstances. Now middle-aged, Meadows seeks out his former captors in their civilian lives to help him bury his son, a Marine killed in Iraq, in Arlington National Cemetery. When he learns that the authorities have told him a lie about the circumstances of his son's death, he decides, with the help of the two others, to transport him home to Portsmouth. And so begins the journey, centered around a solemn mission but, as in the first book, a protest against injustice and celebration of life too, at once irreverent, funny, profane, and deeply moving. Last Flag Flying is now a major movie from Amazon Studios, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, and Laurence Fishburne.

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Page Count

218

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1510727760

ISBN 13

9781510727762

The Last Detail

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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The Last Detail

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

Unlike other branches of the armed services, the Navy draws it police force from the ranks, as temporary duty called Shore Patrol. In this funny, bawdy, moving novel set during the height of the Vietnam War, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, Virginia—Billy "Bad-Ass" Buddusky and Mule Mulhall—are assigned to escort eighteen-year-old Larry Meadows from Norfolk to the brig in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he is to serve an eight-year sentence for petty theft. It's good duty, until the two old salts realize the injustice of the sentence and are oddly affected by the naive innocence of their young prisoner. In the five days allotted for the detail, they decide to show Meadows something of the life he doesn't yet know, to help him survive the long ordeal ahead and to purge their own shame. What follows is an unlikely road trip by bus and train up the Eastern seaboard and an indelible journey of initiation and discovery, filled with beer-soaked wisdom, big city lights, revelry, brawls, debauchery, love, and surprising moments of tenderness.

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Page Count

198

Publisher

Skyhorse

Published Date

ISBN 10

1510727779

ISBN 13

9781510727779

Andoshen, Pa.

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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Andoshen, Pa.

By: Darryl Ponicsan

Author of THE LAST DETAIL and CINDERELLA LIBERTY Darryl Ponicsan's fictitious Andoshen, Pa., is 14 real miles from John O'Hara's fictitious Gibbsville, Pennsylvania. In this novel, Ponicsan writes about his pocket of Lantenengo County as he remembers it from his boyhood. He asks his mother to fill in the gaps in his memory and to comment on how things have changed over the years. She volunteers much more information and her letters are reproduced throughout the book. They provide still another focus of the novel itself. Ponicsan chronicles with precise economy the converging lives of the weird but lovable residents of Andoshen: the odd relationship between Shakey the Cop and Thunder Przwalski, town ne'er-do-well; the trouble between Ella Bistricky of Ella’s Lunch and her brother-in-law, R.K., who took five years to get over Rita Hayworth; the love affair between Estelle Wowak. a wrapper-leaf stripper at the cigar factory, and the Reader; the exploits of Duncan, who once gave Willie Mosconi a good game; of Kayo Mackey, who was the only boy ever to hurt Gene Tunney; of Eggshell Oechsle, a primitive existentialist; of Stump Bonomo, Champion of the Tri-County Finger League; of Doc Rice, reluctant dentist; of Jake the Fake, Gyp the Blood, Lemonears Behind the Brewery, and the rest of the boys at Brolly's Bar and the Majestic Pocket Billiards. Andoshen, Pa. is the touching story of a tough, often violent, coal town entirely undermined and sinking more rapidly than the jewel of the Adriatic. The poverty of Andoshen is as rich as that of Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row. It is a new and unique addition to the literary map of the world. DARRYL PONICSAN brings to this novel the same curious, compassionate irony that made his other books, The Last Detail and Goldengrove, so highly acclaimed.

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Page Count

243

Publisher

Speaking Volumes

ISBN 10

1645400794

ISBN 13

9781645400790

Andoshen, Pa.

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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Andoshen, Pa.

By: Darryl Ponicsan

Who lives in Andoshen, Pa.' Wards of Darryl Ponicsan's memory and imagination: Shakey the Cop, Thunder Przwalski, the Reader at the cigar factory, Duncan, who once gave Willie Mosconi a good game, Kayo Mackey, said to be the only boy ever to hurt Gene Tunney in the ring, Stump Bonomo, Champion of the Tri-County Finger League, and various others who managed a coal town kind of immortality. The poverty of Andoshen is as rich as that of Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row. It is a unique additon to the literary map of the world.

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294

Publisher

iUniverse

Published Date

ISBN 10

0595182526

ISBN 13

9780595182527

Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

By: Darryl Ponicsan

TOM MIX DIED FOR YOUR SINS - A NOVEL BASED ON HIS LIFE Here is a brilliantly colorful evocation of the life and times of Tom Mix, as based on fact but told in fiction. The rodeo and ranching days, the movie stunts and the movie glamour, the private and public circuses, Mix's wives and girls, are all covered in a tale as authentic as it is engrossing. Kid Bandera tells the story—tells it with wit, cynicism, and affection. When he met Tom in 1904, Tom was 24 and knew nothing about being a cowboy. But he knew how to ride, he knew how to fight, how to tell stories, and how to ingratiate himself with every girl who came along. The Kid and Tom were lawmen together in Kansas, worked a combination ranch and wild west show in Oklahoma. And Tom Mix learned his craft—as he learned every craft he tried—and there were no stunts too hard for him. When Tom Mix went to Hollywood, he brought his incredible stunts to the silent films and brought incredible wealth—and world fame—to himself. Before his career ended, there were command performances in Europe. For neither before nor since was there a movie cowboy his equal. Tom Mix Died for Your Sins is the story of a larger than life cowboy in a larger than life era.

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Page Count

295

Publisher

Speaking Volumes

ISBN 10

1645400670

ISBN 13

9781645400677

Last Flag Flying

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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Last Flag Flying

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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Page Count

218

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1510727760

ISBN 13

9781510727762

The Last Detail

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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The Last Detail

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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198

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Skyhorse

Published Date

ISBN 10

1510727779

ISBN 13

9781510727779

Eternal Sojourners

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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Eternal Sojourners

A Novel

By: Darryl Ponicsán

From the author of The Last Detail and Last Flag Flying, a surreal comic novel in the tradition of Joseph Heller about movies, small-town politics, and a place between heaven and hell. Following a rewrite job in New York City, veteran screenwriter D. K. Kecskeméti finds himself not in his home in Hollywood Hills but in an unfamiliar house in a strange town, where he's greeted by an obsequious houseman who informs that his wife, Hope, is gone. The note she left reveals that she’s on a retreat to deal with a personal crisis of which DK was somehow unaware. Confused and disoriented, unable to sleep, he wanders the deserted streets. He comes upon three cops, guns drawn, at the open doorway of a residence. When the doorway fills with a blinding light, they open fire. The victim falls right next to DK. She is a beautiful black woman, who happens to be naked . . . and an angel. She folds her wings as she utters her last words: “Hope is alive.” In the days that follow, as he seeks answers about the shooting and a way to rejoin his wife, DK learns more about his new hometown and meets its residents, who try to convince him—through the roar of leaf blowers—that he's lucky to be in this little slice of heaven. But what can a screenwriter do when "a little slice of heaven" is closer to a small corner of hell?

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Page Count

330

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1510749144

ISBN 13

9781510749146

The Last Detail

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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The Last Detail

By: Darryl Ponicsan

Unlike other branches of the armed services, the navy draws its police force from the ranks, as temporary duty. The risk is that men on Shore Patrol might bring their humanity to the task. This accounts for the underlying tension in "The Last Detail," which takes place during the height of the Vietnam War. Billy Bad-Ass and Mule Mulhall, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, awaiting permanent orders, are given a detail: "chaser" duty. Their assignment is to escort and deliver Larry Meadows, an 18-year-old sailor, from Norfolk to Portsmouth, N. H., where he is to serve an eight year sentence in the brig. It's good duty, on the face of it, until the two old salts realize the injustice of the sentence and are oddly affected by the true innocence of their prisoner, even though he is guilty as charged. Failure, or refusal, to carry out their duty is never a question, no matter how much they may hate the detail or how wrong it seems, and yet something must be done, some gesture made in order to help their hapless prisoner survive the long ordeal he faces, and to purge their sense of shame. "The Last Detail" was Darryl Ponicsan's first book and it catapulted him into the front rank of American novelists. It was made into the 1973 film starring Jack Nicholson, and has become a classic of the Golden Age of American cinema. This new edition of "The Last Detail" coincides with the publication of its long-awaited sequel, "Last Flag Flying," also available from Wright Press.

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Page Count

152

Published Date

ISBN 10

0976399717

ISBN 13

9780976399711

Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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295

Publisher

Speaking Volumes

ISBN 10

1645400670

ISBN 13

9781645400677

I feel Bad about my Dick: Lamentations of Masculine Vanity and Lists of Startling Pertinence

By: Darryl Ponicsán

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I feel Bad about my Dick: Lamentations of Masculine Vanity and Lists of Startling Pertinence

By: Darryl Ponicsán

At a library used book sale, Ponicsán picked up a copy of Nora Ephron’s bestseller, “I Feel Bad About My Neck.” It inspired him over the next several years to answer her observations from the male point of view and over a different bodily part, and to direct it to Ephron’s audience. Part memoir, part parody, part social analysis. (Publisher’s note: This is not just a guy’s book, or an old guy’s book..It’s amusing and full of interesting tales and insights for any gender, and maybe let’s women take a look into the other gender’s view). “…light-hearted…waxing alternately philosophical and vinegary as he takes us on a trip through Hollywood’s movie business, the Watts riots, breakfast cereal, sex and invasive medical procedures. There are engaging digressions into the life of a script doctor, politics, porn, the benign-neglect style of parenting his folks practiced and the beauty of non-attachment. He moves it all along smoothly, never letting truth stand in the way of a good story…If you like charming stories, good writing and a few laughs, ignore the title and buy this book.” -Brady T. Brady, published short stories in the anthology Editor’s Choice III Fiction from U.S. Small Press and in the Hawaii Review and the San Francisco Reader, among others.

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Page Count

138

Publisher

Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1545754217

ISBN 13

9781545754214

Last Flag Flying

By: Darryl Ponicsan

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Last Flag Flying

By: Darryl Ponicsan

Darryl Ponicsan never imagined that his first novel, "The Last Detail," called by one critic "...the first underground triumph of the 70s..." would be a continuing story. With the invasion of Iraq, however, the same elements that inspired the original - injustice, a senseless war, men of honor and duty caught in untenable positions - compelled him to revisit Billy Bad-Ass, Mule, and the hapless Meadows, and to see how his characters were faring in post-9/11 life. The result is "Last Flag Flying," a story as tough and tender, sad and funny, as "The Last Detail." The boy Billy and Mule escorted to prison has come back into their lives, now a grieving man of 52, with a gut-wrenching request they cannot deny. What follows is a retracing of their steps from 34 years before, a journey from Norfolk, Virginia to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on a mission as heart-breaking - and as exhilarating - as the first.

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Page Count

180

Published Date

ISBN 10

0976399709

ISBN 13

9780976399704

Book's by Darryl Ponicsan

Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying

The Last Detail

The Last Detail

Andoshen, Pa.

Andoshen, Pa.

Andoshen, Pa.

Andoshen, Pa.

Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying

The Last Detail

The Last Detail

Eternal Sojourners

Eternal Sojourners

The Last Detail

The Last Detail

Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

Tom Mix Died for Your Sins

I feel Bad about my Dick: Lamentations of Masculine Vanity and Lists of Startling Pertinence

I feel Bad about my Dick: Lamentations of Masculine Vanity and Lists of Startling Pertinence

Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying

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