Review: "The Devil All the Time" by Donald Ray Pollock

This book will not appeal to those who don’t like nasty, unredeemable characters, graphic violence and hints of even worse kinds of heinous actions, but there is something so fascinating and honest about Donald Ray Pollock’s first novel “The Devil All the Time that makes it such a great read. Pollock, who did not start writing seriously until his fifties, crafts a dark tale of murder, desperation, and retribution set between the end of WWII and the middle of the 1960’s. It feels very much like something Flannery O’ Conner would write, except a lot more aggressive, with characters right out of a Joe R. Lansdale short story. It feels like one of his stories as you are reading it, where violence can happen in the blink of an eye, and something depraved is always right around the corner from where you call home. The narrative splits itself four ways, telling the stories of a few inhabitants of the small town of Knockemstiff, Ohio. We first meet Willard Russell, who is willing to try anything to save his wife Catharine from a painful death by cancer, even animal, and eventually human blood, which he pours on his prayer log he has set up in the woods. We also see the lives of Carl and Sandy Henderson, a serial killing couple, whose atrocities Carl documents with his precious camera. There is the preacher Roy, and his invalid side kick Theodore, who are on the run from Knockemstiff after Roy kills his wife in cold blood. Finally, we meet Arvin Russell, the orphaned son of Willard and Catharine, who has a vicious streak a mile wide. All these characters live out their lives mostly separately throughout the novel, but it comes together in the end in a beautiful way that contrasts greatly and magnificently with the novels darker shades. While many of the characters do heinous things (especially Carl and Sandy as well as an amoral preacher introduced about halfway through), they always stay true to themselves and the rules they have set out for themselves, no matter how wrapped they are. And they always have a way to rationalize what they have done, which gives them a three dimensional quality that adds to there realness. Which is what makes this a special book in my eyes, is the compassion Pollock has for even the most undeserving character. He inhabits every character he writes about, and you can tell that he cares deeply for them all, which makes the reader open to caring about them to. While I do recommend this book, it is most definitely not for weak stomachs. This is down and dirty storytelling at its best, and some of the awful things these people perpetrate on others had me gasping and thinking twice about what I was reading. But if you remain as open to these people as Pollock is, you will be rewarded with great beauty and reassured of the amazing things that can exist in the most humbling of people.

Rating: 5/5