The Devil All the Time

The Devil All the Time is the debut novel by American writer Donald Ray Pollock, published in 2011 by Doubleday. Its plot follows disparate characters in post-World War II Southern Ohio and West Virginia, including a disturbed war veteran, a husband and wife who are serial killers, and a false preacher. The film of the same name is set to star Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Robert Pattinson and Bill Skarsgård, and will be produced by Jake Gyllenhaal. [2]

For the film adaptation, see The Devil All the Time (film).
The Devil All the Time
First edition cover art
AuthorDonald Ray Pollock
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreGothic,[1] crime
PublishedJuly 12, 2011 (2011-07-12) (Doubleday)
Media typePrint (Hardcover, paperback)
Pages272
ISBN978-0-385-53504-5

Plot

Willard Russell and Charlotte live in Knockemstiff, Ohio, raising Arvin Eugene as a good Christian son. Charlotte gets cancer and Willard builds a makeshift altar for god with a "prayer log" used for sacrifice in hope of curing Charlotte. However, Willard reaches his end of rope and sacrifices himself on the log after seeing no results of his worship ritual. This leaves Arvin to be orphan, and Arvin is sent to live with his grandparents back in Coal Creek. Apart from Arvin, there is a murderous photographer and his wife who do killings for their own version of distorted art, a corrupt sheriff, and a spider eating holy man wannabe with a crippled sidekick, and lecherous pastor who preys on the young congregants.

Reception

Writing for The New York Times, Josh Ritter praised the novel, describing its prose as "sickly beautiful as it is hard-boiled. [Pollock]'s scenes have a rare and unsettling ability to make the reader woozy, the ends of the chapters flicking like black horseflies off the page."[2] Lisa Shea of Elle wrote that the "flawless cadence of Pollock's gorgeous shadow-and-light prose plays against the heinous acts of his sorrowful and sometimes just sorry characters."[3] Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times praised Pollock's narrative method, writing that he "deftly shifts from one perspective to another, without any clunky transitions — the prose just moves without signal or stumble, opening up the story in new ways again and again...  The Devil All the Time should cement his reputation as a significant voice in American fiction."[4]

Jeff Baker of The Oregonian noted that the novel "reads as if the love child of [Flannery] O'Connor and [William] Faulkner was captured by Cormac McCarthy, kept in a cage out back and forced to consume nothing but onion rings, Oxycontin and Terrence Malick's Badlands."[5] Publishers Weekly commented "If Pollock's powerful collection Knockemstiff was a punch to the jaw, his follow-up, a novel set in the violent soul-numbing towns of southern Ohio and West Virginia, feels closer to a mule's kick, and how he draws these folks and their inevitably hopeless lives without pity is what the kick's all about."[6]

The French literary publication Lire named The Devil All the Time as the best novel of the year in 2012.[7]

Accolades

Adaptations
Main article: The Devil All the Time (film)

The novel has been adapted into a feature film of the same name by director Antonio Campos, set to be released on Netflix, and which began filming in Alabama on February 19, 2019 and concluded on April 15, 2019.[12]

References
  1. "Devil In The Details: 3 Artful Tales Of Murder". National Public Radio. November 3, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  2. Ritter, Josh (August 14, 2011). "A Good Man Is Impossible to Find". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  3. Shea, Lisa (July 1, 2011). "All Holy Hell". Elle. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  4. Kellogg, Carolyn (August 14, 2011). "'The Devil All the Time'". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016.
  5. Baker, Jeff (July 23, 2011). "'The Devil All the Time' review: Donald Ray Pollock doubles down in his latest contemporary noir". The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019.
  6. "The Devil All the Time". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on February 4, 2016.
  7. "Les 20 meilleurs livres de l'année 2012". L'Express (in French). 2012. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017.
  8. "Donald Ray Pollock (MFA, 2009) Awarded Grand Prix de Littérature Policière 2012". Ohio State University. November 5, 2012. Archived from the original on December 18, 2016.
  9. "FIVE in BLOOM: Where Are They Now?". Bloom. November 20, 2018. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019.
  10. "Literarisches Leben: Merle Kröger und Sara Gran holen erste Plätze". Boersenblatt (in German). January 16, 2013. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019.
  11. "Palmarès du Prix Mystère de la critique". La lettre du libraire (in French). Archived from the original on May 6, 2019.
  12. Wiseman, Andreas (March 4, 2019). "Netflix's Starry Pic 'The Devil All The Time' Adds 'Buster Scruggs' Star Harry Melling, Shoot Underway". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019.
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