When his ship docked in Seattle, Navy man John Boggs, Jr. has a "Cinderella liberty" pass, meaning he can be out until midnight -- so he intends to make the most of his evening. He "wins" call girl Maggie in a pool game but when he finds out that Maggie has an 11-year-old son and a baby on the way, he backs off.

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.

Discover the classic, acclaimed story that continued in the new book Last Flag Flying, now a major motion picture from Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater. In this funny, bawdy, moving novel set during the height of the Vietnam War, two career sailors in Virginia - Billy "Bad-Ass" Buddusky and Mule Mulhall - are assigned to escort eighteen-year-old Larry Meadows 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 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 indelible journey of initiation and discovery, filled with beer-soaked wisdom, big city lights, revelry, brawls, debauchery, love, and surprising moments of tenderness.

Now a major motion picture, directed by five-time Oscar-nominee Richard Linklater and starring Oscar nominees Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, and Laurence Fishburne. When middle-aged veteran Meadows learns that the authorities have told him a lie about the circumstances of the death of his son, a Marine killed in Iraq, he reunites with aging companions Billy Bad-Ass Buddusky and Mule Mulhall to perform a sacred task: the proper burial of his boy. So begins the journey up the Eastern seaboard, both a solemn mission and a protest against injustice, a celebration of life that is at once irreverent, funny, profane and deeply moving. Darryl Ponicsán'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 and 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 for a striking meditation on the passage of time and the nature of truth. The Last Detail, which introduced the characters of Last Flag Flying, is also available in ebook now.

Presents a collection of the critic's most positive film reviews of the last four decades, arranged alphabetically from "About Last Night" to "Zodiac."

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.

Directors of war and action movies receive access to billions of dollars worth of military equipment and personnel, but it comes with a hidden cost. As a veteran Hollywood journalist shows, the final product is often not just what the director intends but also what the powers-that-be in the military want to project about America's armed forces.