The Devil All the Time

Incredible Work

By the end of the second chapter I felt as though I were reading a contemporary version of Steinbeck. Pollock's writing is somehow similar to moist beauty sucked to a ragged
dry poetic carcass. The surrealistic nature of the story helps to counter the terrifying violence and savage outcome of the magnetic characters. At later points in the book the action borders on absurdist, almost to a fault, but Pollack reels the empathy back to the hopeless dilemma of his protagonist. By the end I felt as though there was light where their most obviously shouldn't be. I highly recommend!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pretty Good

Some interesting characters and rather well written but I found I didn't really care much about what happened to them. It's hard to work up empathy for people who are so much their own worst enemies, even though that's a pretty accurate portrayal of humanity in general.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Draws you in and keeps you intrigued.

I enjoyed this dark story and found myself unwilling to put it down.

Dark, Sick, Mesmerizing Characters

I absolutely loved The Devil All the Time. The characters are the darkest, most sickening creatures I have ever read about and yet, I was completely mesmerized by them. Pollock's writing is so disturbing that I often found myself wondering how I could ever suggest this book to a person without forever changing their opinion of me. There's Willard who sacrifices animals and even a human to save his dying wife, while also subjecting his son, Arvin, to these disturbing rituals. Then we have Carl and Sandy who photograph and kill models. Finally, there's the preacher, Roy, and his wheelchair-bound cousin Theodore who are equally disgusting characters in this novel. Despite the appalling crimes committed by these people, I was fascinated by their lives and couldn't put this book down.

My only criticism is that each story could have stood on its own. The Devil All the Time is less like a novel and more like a compilation of short stories. I understood the grand scheme connection, but it seemed a little forced - as if the author just needed a reason to slap the stories together in the same binding. Honestly though, I was not bothered by this; it was just more substance for me to cringe at.

Reviewed by Brittany for Book Sake.

Recommended, if you don't mind violence

This is a quick read, full of intrigue. I read this for a book club and several members were put off by the violence. So be prepared for violence in the forms of sexual perversity and heinous acts. However, it is well written and a page turner. The characters are well formed and believable.

Fascinating but soooo gritty...be warned.

I couldn't put this one down but be aware that the subject is very stark and gritty. The people in this novel aren't like anyone you know (I certainly hope not....). You may be shocked at some of the practices the author writes about but again, these people are probably not your neighbors. Excellent story and vivid insight into a level of humanity most of us will never know.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Twisted read

Great read. A little slow at first and jumps around a bit to where you sometimes get confused but after page 125 the momentum gets going and its hard to stop. Good thriller with crazy twists!

Amazing.....

I could not put this one down!!!

"Some people were born just so they could be buried." If you've heard of Donald Ray Pollock, it was probably due to his collection of interlinked short stories, Knockemstiff published back in 2009, set in the titular town. His debut novel

(Originally published in full at The Nervous Breakdown.)

If you've heard of Donald Ray Pollock, it was probably due to his collection of interlinked short stories, Knockemstiff published back in 2009, set in the titular town. His debut novel, The Devil All the Time (Doubleday) treads similar ground, spending most of its time in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia in the late 1950s and early 1960s, tracking and recording a wide range of psychopathic behaviors by a motley crew of misfits and delinquents.

What Pollock does so well is create a place and time where nothing he says or shows us is beyond belief. From the beginning we see how things are in Knockemstiff, and we understand the desperation, the need for prayer, the aching hope that something will change and improve.

"Four hundred or so people lived in Knockemstiff in 1957, nearly all of them connected by blood through one God-forsaken calamity or another, be it lust or necessity or just plain ignorance. Along with the tar-papered shacks and cinder block houses, the holler included two general stores and a Church of Christ in Christian Union and a joint known throughout the township as the Bull Pen."

We follow a large cast of screwed up people, starting with Arvin Eugene Russell, who witnesses the death of his mother from disease, and the suicide of his father, damaged and distraught by the loss of his wife. Arvin is forced to worship and beg at a praying log, the forest drenched with blood, rotting carcasses and handmade crosses littering the ground, the stench and desperate act nothing short of abuse. When local lawman, Lee Boedecker shows up, he is shocked to find such ruins:

"Bodecker lifted his flashlight. Animals in various states of decay hung all around them, some in the branches and others from tall wooden crosses. A dead dog with a leather collar around its neck was nailed up high to one of the crosses like some kind of hideous sacrifice. The head of a deer lay at the foot of another."

Arvin eventually sets out on the road and leaves behind his tortured past, but the road is not easy or kind. Out on the highways and back roads are people like his neighbors, Carl and Sandy Henderson. Carl likes to take pictures of his naked wife fondling strange men, before and after he puts a bullet in the stunned hitchhikers, leaving bodies all over the southern states. Sandy bartends and whores, quick to jump in the sack with whatever man gives her an iota of grace and kindness, never phased by the violence she witnesses up close.

We also follow a preacher, Roy, and his crippled, deviant guitarist Theodore, as they travel from a bewildered church to a circus filled with horny bird-women and drunken clowns to a desperate life as field hands and hobos. Carl and Sandy have cast a wide net, and eventually they pull in the tired, beaten down Roy, and ask him to be one of their models.

We come to expect the worst, so when it arrives we are not shocked, but instead hypnotized, wondering when the dark souls who dance about the page will finally get their comeuppance. We wait for justice to descend, for all of the cruel, violent acts to be punished, for the righteous to be redeemed in the end.

(Continued at The Nervous Breakdown.)

Fanstastic, intriguing, breathtaking.

I enjoyed every detail, every character, every word. Though it may be a gruesome story line, it has become one of my favorite novels. A good read that will keep you guessing, and turning each page.

WOW Couldn't put it down!

This was the first book I've read of Donald Pollock and it was crazy. I don't usually take the time to write reviews, but this book has me spinning. The story lines were woven into this spiderweb that just got more and more intense with each chapter. I could not stop reading it and when I got done I just wanted to talk to someone else about it. It was dark, violent and an incredible ride. Fantastic read, will be thinking about this one for a LONG time to come.

This proves that "Knockemstiff" was not a fluke . . .

For a lot of writers, it often seems like their second book falls short of their first book. Maybe the expectations are too high from readers, maybe their contracts force them to produce faster than they are used to, maybe something totally different. I was worried that "The Devil All the Time" was going to fall short of "Knockemstiff." I am glad that I was worried for nothing, because Donald Ray Pollock not only takes what is great from "Knockemstiff," but expands and combines to make one superb novel. The best word to describe Pollock and his writing ability is "brutal." This book has some of the finest, "in your face" writing that just does not let up whatsoever.

Overall, you will be hard-pressed to find other writers in the same league as Donald Ray Pollock. He is not only one of the best new writers out there, he is one of the best overall writers out there, period. I have never read anything like "The Devil All the Time" and I imagine I won't until his next book comes out.

Very engrossing

Very much a pulp fiction/crime crime genre. Graphic, engrossing, and highly entertaining.

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