The Devil all the Time Rant Review

 The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

2011

Southern Gothic, Thriller, Suspense

Warning: Not only is this a full spoiler review, but I will be discussing the difficult topics the book covers, some of which could be triggering.

I finished The Devil All the Time two days ago, just in time for the film's release. While I am excited to watch the movie, especially with all the big names attached, I’m more interested to see if the movie can rectify some of the major issues I had with the novel. So welcome to my first rant review!

I am not from the American South, which I’m pretty sure affected the way I interacted with the characters and landscape. I’ve never been to Ohio or West Virginia, and I can’t say that the novel gave me a great view or idea of what the states are like. Then again, maybe it’s because I’m not a white dude.

I haven’t read many books in my life that disgust me. Typically, I can read bloody books full of gore, and read novels that explore the minds of terrible people, without too much issue. I’ve always felt that literature is a chance to explore difficult subjects and look at how these issues pertain to our current world, or are possible in the future. That being said, I think that the way The Devil All the Time dealt with such subjects, with such a pessimistic view, made it difficult to read.

I think what truly made me uncomfortable reading The Devil All the Time was the author’s casual use of violence against women, homophobic and stereotypical treatment of the LGBT+ community, racist slurs, troubling portray of the disabled community, and pedophilia.

The Devil All the Time follows a large cast of characters over the course of two decades. The novel begins with Willard, a troubled young man arriving home after the end of the second world war. He eventually settles down, marrying a young woman named Charlotte and having a son, Arvin. When Charlotte contracts cancer, Willard slaughters animals, and eventually a man, as sacrifices. Charlotte dies and Willard commits suicide the same day. Arvin, now around 10, is sent to live with his grandmother, Emma. Arvin isn’t the only orphan Emma has taken in. Lenora has been living with Emma since she was a baby, when her travelling preacher/drifter father, Roy, and his cousin, Theodore, killed her mother (though she doesn’t know this.)

Eight years later, Arvin is still recovering from everything he lived through in his childhood. Lenora is bullied for her plainness and dedication to God. A new preacher comes to town, a pedophile, and begins to abuse young girls, including Lenora. Lenora commits suicide (accidentally, known to no one but the reader,) after she gets pregnant. Arvin figures out what happened, and follows in his father’s murderous footsteps by killing the corrupt preacher.

After leaving Emma and heading back to his hometown, he is picked up by Sandy and Carl. Sandy helps her husband to seduce hitchhikers, exclusively young men, then kill them. The two previously killed Roy as he was on his way back to see Lenora after the death of Theodore. Arvin catches on to what they want to do and kills them. When he arrives back to his hometown, he is hunted down by Lee Bodecker, Sandy’s older brother. Arvin kills Brodecker in the same circle his father killed himself. At the end of the novel, Arvin is one of the few still living characters. 

If you find this summary confusing to follow, that’s because A LOT happens in the book. I’ll give Pollock credit for the intricacies of how all the characters interact, but the large cast had me flipping back pages to see which characters were which.  

Now, time to talk about the women of The Devil all the Time. All of them were heartbreaking to read and made it difficult for me to finish the book. None of them felt like real women, and few had more than the occasional couple lines. Their worth is attributed to their appearance. Take how Arvin talks about his half-sister, whom he has lived with now for more than half a decade:

 

Though just a few months younger than Arvin, she already seemed dried up, a pale winter spud left too long in the furrow. [...] “She ain’t never gonna make cheerleader, that’s for sure,” he [Arvin] told Uncle Earskell. (p. 111, ebook)

When I was thinking back over the ways the women died in this novel, I realized most of them die in a way that is often referred to as ‘fridging.’ The phrase is used to describe women who die to propel the character arcs of the main, male characters. 

Perhaps worst of all, most of the women endure incredibly horrible, repeated acts of grooming and sexual assault. The case that made me want to throw my e-reader at the wall was that of Lenora. The young teenager is targeted by the new preacher because her looks and bullying make her “easy.” He grooms her over the course of several months, and continually rapes her. Lenora’s point of view and her trauma is barely explored, instead replaced by the pastor talking about how she is filling out and is more beautiful than before. After she gets pregnant and is gas-lighted by the pastor, Lenora dies. The entire situation felt like it was described and dealt with in the worst way possible. Lenora’s sexual assault is used to propel Arvin’s character arcs and that of the preacher, whereas Lenora has a very small arc and we learn little about her. Using violence against women for this purpose is disgusting, there’s no other way to put it,

 

I’m not going to get into detail as much with the other issues, because I think they pretty much speak for themselves. The n-word is said by two (minor) characters to show how racist they are, while the one (also minor) black character ends up in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. The two ‘gay’ characters. (it’s not official but HEAVILY implied,) further perpetuate harmful stereotypes against the LGBT+ community. One is a pedophile: “Theodore swore that the boy asked for help in zipping his pants up, but not even Roy could buy that one.” (p. 137, ebook). The other, Carl, kills young men after he takes their picture.

The prose that describes all of these events is stark and in the third person. Even though I had a view inside of the character’s head, I never felt like I understood them or their emotions. All felt very surface level, and in-your- face evil. The setting is also not obvious or clear to someone like me who has never visited the area. I found it uninspiring to read and at times unclear as to how a scene was being played out. The novel does deliver its promise of evil and pessimism, with despicable characters and a bleak setting, but I don’t think any of it had the effect Pollock likely anticipated. I left The Devil All the Time feeling empty. I didn’t feel like I better understood the Southern Gothic, nor did I feel like I had watched characters delve into darkness in an eerily real-to-life way. Honestly, I regretted reading this book.

The only reason I finished this book was because I wanted to watch the movie. One of the things that worries me is that there are going to be young girls who watch the movie and idolize the very bad characters just because they’re played by their ‘favs’ and ‘idols’. I was excited to watch the movie and read the book after I first watched the trailer, but I am far from saying the same thing now. 

Rating 2/5: I didn’t have a good time reading this novel for many reasons that you now know. I highly DON’T recommend The Devil All the Time.