The Devil All the Time (Unabridged)
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4.5 • 74 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
From serial killers to animal sacrifices, Donald Ray Pollock’s grisly novel takes a long, hard look at violence in rural Appalachia. And we mean hard—the blood never stops flowing in this contemporary Southern gothic. The Devil All the Time centers around Arvin Russell, following him over the course of two decades starting in the 1940s when he’s nine and later as he tries to escape the violence that’s burned into his soul. The book reads like a creepy fusion of Stephen King and Flannery O’Connor, with characters that include a shell-shocked veteran obsessed with killing animals and a preacher who’ll take a life just to prove he can perform miracles. We were impressed with Pollock’s absolute fearlessness in depicting his characters’ depravity without ever descending into cheap, horror-movie hillbilly stereotypes. Whether they’re acting out of revenge, religious faith, or desperation, they act like monsters, but the most chilling part is that, in the end, they feel totally real.
Customer Reviews
A great read!
My first Pollock novel. I really like his style. When you realize how this story is unfolding, you become mesmerized. Narration is performed very well and really seems to capture the emotion of the characters. Don’t let the dark themes keep you from appreciating the genuineness of this story.
amaIng
amazing tbh
Full Circle
I really enjoyed this Audiobook! I normally listen while I drive for work but, I found myself listening every chance I got! I think what really had me intrigued was I knew some of the places (States & Cities) that they talked about in this book. So I could really see (in my head) this person walking down a dirt road or goin down this certain interstate. If that makes sense. Now that I know all the characters, I think I’ll go back and listen to it again. You always miss stuff the first time around!