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Oct 13, 2016lukasevansherman rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
"Why, one day you'll get to eat at the heavenly table," the man said. "Won't be no scrounging for scraps after that, I guarantee ye." Call it white trash noir. Donald Ray Pollock's novel is a bloody, dizzying, brutal mix of Southern gothic, pulp violence, and bleak, almost existential, comedy. Set in !917 as American enters World War I, Donald Ray Pollock, who has spent much of his life working at a paper mill, brings together a dirty poor trio of brothers turned outlaws, a closeted gay officer with dreams of glory, a serial killer, a drifter, prostitutes, a down on his luck farmer, and about half a dozen other indelibly drawn characters and throws them into a crucible of crime, death, stupidity, lust, and just about every other human failing. His writing evokes Cormac McCarthy, Flanner O'Connor, Jim Thompson, and "Deadwood," but he has a powerful, distinctive voice and a willingness to dive into the swamp of human depravity and misery that, while it can be hard to take, is intense and compelling. Also see "The Devil All the Time."