The Devil All the Time

By: Donald Ray Pollock

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed author of Knockemstiff—called “powerful, remarkable, exceptional” by the Los Angeles Times—comes a dark and riveting vision of America that delivers literary excitement in the highest degree.

In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic over­tones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting.

Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain.

©2011 Donald Ray Pollock (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"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." ( Publishers Weekly)

"The God-fearing hard-luck characters who populate Donald Ray Pollock’s debut novel, The Devil All the Time, move through the southern outlands of Ohio and the isolated hollows of West Virginia like figures in a collective nightmare of poverty, addiction, superstition, and crime" (Lisa Shea, ELLE magazine)

“This novel fulfills the promise made by Pollock’s debut collection, Knockemstiff. He is a real writer, and The Devil All The Time hits you like a telegram from Hell slid under your door at three o’clock in the morning.” (William Gay, author of Provinces of Night and The Long Home)

Enthralling

I finished listening within a week. I think I might even listen again. Donald Ray Pollock paints a picture like few other writers are able to. His novels are darkness twisted, and keep you engaged all the way through.

Also, the performance is great. Each character has their own voice and personality, and it really brings the scenes and characters to life.

Loved this book!

Absolutely fantastic

Great writing, style and narration.

Dark and at parts sickening, but artfully done. Would recommend.

Gritty. Takes you to a place you've not been.

An exposition of depravity, just short of so strange that you can still relate. Involving to the end. Captures a bottom fisher part of the society we wish were not there.

So much better than the movie

I saw the movie first, so all I could see was the characters portraying them! Sandy is so much more sympathetic and as the listener-- I wanted her to start over a new life and escape. The performance was great too, accents and vocals just right! You can tell who's suppose to be female and male. I suggest giving it a listen!

Better than I expected!

I was a bit hesitant because of the reviews that mentioned Cormac McCarthy and Quentin Tarantino because I didn't want to get depressed. But it wasn't like that. No nightmares, no angst. Just a story about a bunch of sicko degenerates, plus one decent kid and his family who lived among them. Lots of blood, killing, and bad behavior, but I think the reason it wasn't truly disturbing was because the victims weren't fully developed characters. Maybe that was deliberate, don't know. It was fun to listen to, and especially because the narrator nailed the southern accents. To the author's credit, while I was pretty sure how the last scene would play out, I wasn't completely sure. Really enjoyed it.

Fantastic from beginning to end

I really enjoyed this story. Pollock sets the pace early and it doesn't let up throughout the story. There are a lot of grotesque displays of behavior, and some beautiful ones as well. Each character is interesting and they are interwoven very well. The narration was also great, it was a fantastic story to listen to.

fantastic listen!

decided to check this one out after listening to the heavenly table. both gritty attention holding books!

Great Dark Story

This is my second time through this book. The author is a master story-teller. The world he has created shows the dark side of humanity and it can seem all too real. But even the second time thru, I had a hard time putting it down.

Holy smokes !!!!

This guy is incredible, these characters are like real people jump right off the pages wrapped up in the most bizarre circumstances and events but none of it unbelievable. I am familiar with these the areas where this takes place and this is one of the best books I've ever listen to probably the best… In my opinion this offer is as good as Steinback

lawless

No one is morally good in this thriller. A true crime story for those who love the genre.