Set in the post-World War II American Midwest, 'The Devil All the Time' weaves a haunting tale of interconnected lives steeped in violence and dark desperation. The story revolves around Arvin Eugene Russell, a young man grappling with his traumatic past and the sinister forces that inhabit his world. As he encounters a cast of morally ambiguous characters—including a corrupt sheriff, a twisted couple of serial killers, and a faith-driven preacher—his quest for protection becomes a fight for survival. Pollock’s vivid prose and relentless tension reveal the human capacity for both evil and redemption. This gripping narrative will leave readers questioning the price of faith and the nature of evil itself.
By Donald Ray Pollock
Published: 2012
"In a world teeming with darkness, the flicker of light often feels like a cruel joke, a reminder that even the smallest hope can be drowned out by the weight of despair."
Now a Netflix film starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson A dark and riveting vision of 1960s 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.
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“In a world teeming with darkness, the flicker of light often feels like a cruel joke, a reminder that even the smallest hope can be drowned out by the weight of despair.”
The Devil All the Time
By Donald Ray Pollock
Discover a world of knowledge through our extensive collection of book summaries.
Donald Ray Pollock is an acclaimed American author known for his gritty and compelling storytelling that captures the complexities of rural life in Appalachia. His notable works include 'The Devil All the Time,' which was adapted into a popular film, and 'Knockemstiff,' a collection of interconnected short stories that showcase his vivid characters and dark humor. Pollock's writing style combines a raw, poetic prose with sharp observations of human nature, and he often explores themes of violence, poverty, and redemption within the rural landscape.
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