The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock

Published by Doubleday on July 12, 2016

Readers who are familiar with Donald Ray Pollock expect his characters to be defined by a combination of hardship, violence, and ignorance, softened by occasional moments of compassion and wisdom. In The Heavenly Table, Pollock focuses on impoverished characters in the World War I era who are struggling with life’s unfairness as they search for self-worth or redemption or something that will give purpose to their lives.

Pearl Jewett has three sons: Cob, Cane, and Chimney, all named in fits of drunkenness. He loses his farm in a futile effort to keep his wife alive and confronts a crisis of faith as he struggles to feed his children. He tells them that good fortune awaits -- they will all dine at the heavenly table when they go to meet their maker. Their more immediate fortune is uncertain as they try to make their way in the world, guided by a pulp western that chronicles the adventures of an outlaw named Bloody Bill.

Other characters play out their own dramas as the Jewetts emulate Bloody Bill. Vincent Bovard, in despair after his fiancé leaves him, decides to join the Army and die on the Western Front. Serving as a lieutenant in Ohio who is still far from the front, he struggles with his sexual identity.

Ellsworth Fiddler, a farmer, has been swindled out of his life’s savings. Jasper Cone inspects outhouses in a town where indoor plumbing is considered a Socialist threat. Sugar Milford is a black man who can’t get ahead in a white world -- although his idea of progress is to find a new woman who will support him.

Pollock stretches his literary legs in The Heavenly Table without departing from this strength -- the ability to make readers understand, and relate to, the troubles of people who are disadvantaged by a lack of education, opportunity, and positive parental role models. Many of the characters are desperate -- for money, for friendship, for a woman’s touch, for a peaceful existence. There is greater depth in Pollock’s characters than in his past work, no small feat for a writer whose characters have always been strong.

Pollock uses chance and geography to tie the story threads together. Although The Heavenly Table story is not entirely bleak, Pollock doesn’t contrive the kind of happy endings that appeal to lovers of cozy mysteries, On the other hand, readers who like gritty stories about desperate characters will find much to admire in The Heavenly Table. Pollock's prose, his plot, and his characters are all exceptional.

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The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

Published by Doubleday on July 12, 2011

It is rare and wonderful to find a writer who combines the literary sensibility of character-driven fiction with the storytelling ability that shapes the best plot-driven fiction. Donald Ray Pollock is such a writer. I was enthused about the stories collected in his first book, Knockemstiff, and looked forward to reading his first novel. The Devil All the Time did not disappoint.

As was true in Knockemstiff, nearly all the characters in The Devil All the Time are ignorant, violent, and dirt poor. They solve problems with fists and guns. They are driven by sex but empty of love. For the most part, they are beyond redemption, particularly those who claim to serve a higher power. The characters are, at best, drifting through life; at worst, they are consciously evil.

The novel's title appears in nine-year-old Arvin Russell's thoughts: "As far back as he could remember, it seemed that his father had fought the Devil all the time." Willard Russell's battle isn't entirely successful; his intense prayer sessions at an altar of his own making do not shield him from excessive drink or violence. As the novel moves forward, it takes us back in time, gives us a glimpse of the events that shaped Willard's life, then zooms ahead to events that shape Arvin's. The novel detours to other stories: a sheriff and his sister both have homicidal tendencies, as does the sister's twisted husband; a man in a wheelchair and his preacher friend eke out a living in a carnival tent show before they're forced to leave; a clergyman has a taste for young girls. Eventually, as the separate lives weave together, we realize that all these characters are battling the Devil all the time.

A couple of chapters read like the self-contained short stories in Knockemstiff, but they integrate well with the rest of the novel. At times the characters seem too much like the bedeviled losers who populate other bleak novels (clergy members preying on the young is becoming a cliché even if it's never far removed from the headlines), but Pollock's best characters shine with the polish of originality. Pollock's writing is crisp. He includes sufficient detail to develop his characters and to set scenes without slowing the novel's pace.

This isn't a novel for readers who need to like the characters in order to like the book. This isn't a novel for readers who have an aversion to gruesome violence or bizarre sexual practices. For readers who appreciate an intense story filled with sharply drawn characters struggling with lives that seem destined for doom, this is an excellent novel.

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Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

Published by Doubleday on March 18, 2008

This marvelous story collection is Winesburg, Ohio for those who live at the fringes of civilized society. It showcases the residents of Knockemstiff, Ohio, some of whom appear in more than one story. If you like stories about gritty people whose actions are motivated by raw emotion rather than rational thought, people with few redeeming qualities, poor self-esteem, bad manners, and little hope, this is the collection for you.

Two things make these stories work. First, the writing is of the highest quality: sharp, poignant, and honest. Second, the stories are character-driven and plot-driven at the same time, a rare blend in literary fiction. The stories are actually about something beyond the characters. Things happen, interesting and sometimes shocking things, as the stories progress from a clear beginning to a clear ending. For instance: **Semi-Spoiler Alert** A young draft evader who lives in the hills comes across a brother and sister having sex, kills the brother and rapes the sister before returning to hiding. A bodybuilder takes steroids at the insistence of his father who wants to recapture his glory days by living vicariously through his son (the son, of course, comes to no good end). Two kids steal a dealer's supply of pills with fantastic plans about selling them and starting a new life, but end up using all the pills. These are a few examples of the tragic and depressing but realistic life stories depicted in Knockemstiff. **End of Spoiler**

Make no mistake: the characters in Knockemstiff represent the underbelly of America. They are seedy, violent, uncouth, racist, uneducated, vulgar, and more than a little creepy. If you don't like a story unless you like the characters, you won't like this book. If stories don't appeal to you unless they are morally uplifting, you won't like this book. But make no mistake also: the characters in Knockemstiff are as real as dirt. Pollock perfectly captures the rage and hopelessness and bewilderment that infuses people who society has left behind. If you appreciate good writing for its own sake, if you think damaged people can be just as interesting as virtuous people in the hands of a fine writer, if you value the insight that comes from intense examination of the darker aspects of the human soul, Knockemstiff is a book you will appreciate and think about and remember.

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