The Last Detail, Darryl Ponicsan
The Last Detail, Darryl Ponicsan
1 Rating(s)
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
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The Last Detail

Author: Darryl Ponicsán

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 5 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Novel Audio

Published: 09/05/2017


Synopsis

The Acclaimed Novel That Was the Basis for the Classic Movie Starring Jack Nicholson

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Glen on July 17, 2024

The Last Detail is a classic 70's film. This is the novel it's based on. It's cynical in the way only 70's lit could be, as Shore Patrol takes a sailor to the brig and get sidetracked. I think the movie is better.......more

Goodreads review by Realini on January 01, 2019

The Last Detail, based on the novel by Darryl Ponicsan Nine out of 10 The Last Detail has Jack Nicholson in top form leading the cast. If it is only for that and the film is memorable and on the list of films to watch, although it strangely does not make some prestigious compilations, like The New Yor......more

Goodreads review by Mark on April 26, 2018

I've seen the film version of "The Last Detail" numerous times and count it among my favorite movies. But up until now, I had not read the book it was based on. They both have the same spirit and camaraderie, but there were significant changes when it was translated to film, and a very different end......more

Goodreads review by Vali on May 26, 2023

A vivid microcosm of a changing America in the late 1960s. Beautifully written by first time author Darryl Ponicsan, the ideals that the book professes still hold up. As do the questions that it raises. Also, the film adaptation starring Jack Nicholson should not be missed. Highly recommended for fa......more

Goodreads review by Martyna on September 16, 2020

Two sailors Billy Bad-Ass and Mule Mulhall are given a job by their supervisor to send a seaman convicted of theft to prison. The latter, key for the whole story, is a young inconspicuous boy who seems lost in the world around him - Meadows. Initially, Bad-Ass and Mulhall, vigorously begin their mis......more