NUDGE NB Newbooks Review: The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock

The Heavenly Table

Donald Ray Pollock

Pages: 384

Publisher: Harvill Secker

Souce: NUDGE, NB Newbooks

Genre: Historical Western Noir

Rating:

Disclaimer: I received a complementary copy of The Heavenly Table

from NUDGE NB Newbooks in exchange for my honest review.

A classically written western with a contemporary noir twist
Read in July 2016

Synopsis:
Cane, Cob and Chimney Jewett are young Georgia sharecroppers held under the thumb of their domineering, God-struck father Pearl. When he dies unexpectedly, they set out on horseback to rob and loot their way to wealth and infamy, inspired by a lurid dime novel that only one of them can read. But little goes as planned and soon they're pursued by both the authorities and by stories that make them out to be the most fearsome trio of bank robbers and murderers around. The truth, though, is far more complex than the legend. And the heaven they've imagined may in fact be worse than the hell they sought to escape. The Heavenly Table is gritty, electrifying and weirdly funny. It cements Donald Ray Pollock's place among America's best contemporary novelists.

My Thoughts:
My first encounter with Donald Ray Pollock was with 'Kockemstiff' and 'The Devil All The Time'. I just love the gritty hillbilly, redneck storylines. I just love his twisted, cruel sense of humour. Peppered throughout with the worst acts of human kind, moral angst and a just a sprinkling of goodness or innocence, Pollock does not write comfortable easy reading material. So then, with 'The Heavenly Table' I knew what I was likely to be getting and was not disappointed.

Set against the backdrop of Alabama and Meade in 1917 and the beginning of America's involvement in WWI, 'The Heavenly Table' is an epic family saga with the Jewett family at the heart of the story, with Pearl a fanatically religious hardworking farmer and his sons, Cane the oldest, wisest and literate, Cob the 'dummy' and Chimney the rebellious youngest and least moral of the three sons.

We also hear about the Fiddler's; Ellsworth who has lost the family's life savings to a travelling con artist, Eula his long suffering, all forgiving wife, and Eddie their good for nothing drunk of a son.

Initial chapters give alternating perspectives of the families with a build up of characters adding their own distinctive points of view along the way. These seemingly unrelated storylines will eventually converge with an exciting explosive climax.

The Heavenly Table's titular phrase comes from a mystical drifter Pearl encounters one day, who tells him to, “welcome all the suffering that comes your way” and preaches that if he does so, one day he will “eat at the heavenly table.”  Well darn it if Pearl and those boys haven't suffered enough already, but Pearl believes they can and must suffer more to do whatever it takes to be worthy of sitting at that table some day.  Fortunately for Pearl his suffering is soon over and the boys decide that they've had enough and want something better while they're still alive.  With the influence of an old dime novel and its violent tales of 'Bloody Bill Bucket', a hero they will aspire to more and more, the boys set off on their adventurous, often disastrous, road to to seek their fortunes.

This is gritty western noir at its best with impeccably placed humour with gruesome graphic scenes, one such as a parasitic worm vacating the dead body of the Jewett boys' mother.

Pollock writes with such fluidity and emotive intensity about his deprived and often depraved characters, about the hardship and savagery in their lives, and of their grit and determination to better themselves.  So fabulously drawn that at times it feels as if the Jewett boys could just ride off the pages in a blaze of dust and played out for me like a Cohen Brother's movie.  Surface to say, it's deliciously dark, mean and cruel with a smattering of good old religious comeuppance and plenty of brutal black humour.

Perfect for fans of Bill Frank, Joe R Lansdale, Patrick de Witt, and because I don't think it has quite the same level of violence as in his previous books, it would make an excellent introduction for newcomers to the world of Mr Pollock who is in my opinion a cracker of a story teller.

Favourite Character/Scene: I loved all the characters and far too many scenes were memorable so I'll go with...the image of a drunken Eddie Fiddler accidentally blasting his mom's cat Pickles to Kingdom Come.

Least liked character: ohh it’s got to be the big 'Bad Bob' psycho killer.

The Far Empty by J Todd Scott

The Far Empty, J Todd Scott
Publisher: G P Putnam's Sons (9 June 2016)
Pages: 448

Source: Publisher/Edelweiss
Genre: Contemporary Western Crime Noir, Fact Based Fiction

Themes: Mexican Drug Gangs, Graphic scenes of violence, Abuse of every kind...

Rating:

Disclaimer: A complimentary copy of The Far Empty was provided by G P Putnam's Sons via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

Synopsis:

Todd Scott s "The Far Empty" is so good I wish I d written it. The poetic and bloody ground of west Texas has given birth to a powerful new voice in contemporary western crime fiction. Craig Johnson, "New York Times" bestselling author of the Walt Longmire series

In this gritty crime debut set in the stark Texas borderlands, an unearthed skeleton will throw a small town into violent turmoil.

Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago, and is struggling to find his way out of the small Texas border town of Murfee. Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriff s deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfee s darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect: Caleb s father and Chris s boss, the charismatic and feared Sheriff Standford Judge Ross. Dark, elegiac, and violent, "The Far Empty" is a modern Western, a story of loss and escape set along the sharp edge of the Texas border. Told by a longtime federal agent who knows the region, it s a debut novel you won t soon forget."

My Thoughts:
So much time and effort goes into getting a book cover right so when one catches my eye I think it deserves a mention. The cover has to convey something about the book, as well as making sure it appeals to a potential reader, because if it's not right it can be the death of a book. I always tell customers (especially if they're looking at a book with a spectacular cover) that, you can tell a publisher believes in the author from the quality of the cover... So to The Far Empty... I love the cover artwork for this gritty, crime debut.  It certainly gives a clue as to what the book is about...Mexican border gun culture, drug cartels with a murder or two.

If you find scenes of graphic violence abhorrent then move away from this one and if the cover is right I think you'll have done that anyway.

The Far Empty is a fictional piece based on actual violent drug related incidents and on a corrupt local sheriff from a drugs task force in Texas.
J Todd Scott, a federal agent with the DEA for many years has drawn on his experience to pen this gritty, brutal debut and with twenty years experience in the force investigating smuggling, domestic meth lads and Mexican cartels, he knows what he's writing about.

Ok so Caleb Ross, he's 17 and his father is the charismatic, influential Sheriff Stanford 'Judge' Ross and in Celeb's own voice he says this of him, 'My father has killed three men. My father . . . that f*****g monster . . . also killed my mother'.
So Caleb doesn't like his father...He even feels uneasy turning his back on him. Why would he feel such hatred for, and fear of his own father, unless of course he has reason. Caleb 'knows', that his mother wouldn't have run out on him with no word for the last thirteen months, and that his father killed her. He just cannot prove it.

Chris Cherry, after a knee injury ends his promising football career, returns to Murfee taking on the role of sheriff's deputy.  His girlfriend Melissa is not so sure that its such a good move when they arrive.

When skeletal remains are unearthed out in the 'badlands' Cherry wants to do everything he can to put a name to this poor soul. However it's not going to be easy with the apathetic, unwillingness to investigate on the part of Sheriff Ross and his psychotic chief deputy Duane Dupree. After all it's probably just another dead Mexican in the desert so who cares.  Well, Cherry does and so too does Caleb who's convinced it's his mum that's been lying out there all this time.

Into the mix we have, another missing person Rudy Ray a border patrol officer; the arrival of Anne the mysterious new teacher at Caleb's school; América Reynosa Caleb's Mexican friend whose brother Rudy Ray has gone missing, and Maximo a young teen 'hired Killer' for one of the drug cartels.

Each character gets their own chapter to tell us about their history and their thought process throughout the story, but its only Caleb's narrative which is in the first person, lending his voice focus and impact.

The Far Empty is dark, brutal, menacing and exceedingly violent with all of the unsavoury characters you'd expect to find involved in Mexican border gun culture, and some ignorant or down trodden towns folk living within an environment where the law is just as feared as the drug run cartels. There are some shocking and unexpected surprises along the way with one big shocker I didn't see coming.

If you read to escape reality and whats really going on in the world then steer very clear, this one really is not for you.  However, I really enjoyed The Far Empty and fully believed in the depraved characters and the world within which they resided. I'm so looking forward to reading his next offering.

Perfect for fans of James Ellroy, Donald Ray Pollock, Frank Bill and Don Winslow.

Most memorable character:  Maximo, frighteningly all too real, desperately unsettling as it is an all too real scenario and inescapable reality for many kids like him.

Characters disliked: The callous cruel remorseless and calculating Sheriff 'Judge' Ross; his sidekick Deputy Dupree and most of the seedy darn right despicable townsfolk.

The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollock

The Devil All The Time

Donald Ray Pollock

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Source: Purchased (Waterstones)

*Content: Scenes of violence, mental and physical abuse, & truck loads of swearing*

Rating:

So glad that I've read a run of really good books lately. I get a little disheartened when I try not to but have to abandon more than two books in a row. The latest few have been seriously good in my opinion and I will endeavour not to gush overly, which will, believe me, be hard not to do.

First up is, Donald Ray Pollock's debut novel, 'The Devil All The Time':

..."Unless he had whiskey running through his veins, Willard came to the clearing every morning and evening to talk to God. Arvin didn't know which was worse, the drinking or the praying. As far back as he could remember, it seemed that his father had fought the Devil all the time.”...

The Devil All The Time is unbelievably, the debut novel from Donald Ray Pollock. I couldn't fault it in any area. This gritty, perverse tale of interlinked short stories flows seamlessly from one narrative into another, then back again.  Written in the 3rd person narrative it is a deliriously twisted intensely gratuitously violent tale with deeply religious and Gothic under­tones.

It is an insightful character driven story about several complex tragic, manipulative and predatory personalities who live in and around rural southern Ohio and West Virginia during the late 1950's and 1960's.

One of the narrative perspectives is of Willard Russell, a traumatised WWII veteran returning from the bloody battle front at the end of the war.  On his journey home he sees a beautiful waitress at The Wooden Spoon Restaurant. He is instantly smitten, pursues and ultimately asks her to marry him.  It is during Charlotte's agonising terminal illness that he becomes increasingly unbalanced and resorts to disturbing prayer rituals and sacrifices in order to bring her back to her former health.

Caught in the middle of all this is Arvin, Willard and Charlotte's son who is forced to participate in the rituals. Despite an increasing intensity of praying and sacrificial offerings Charlotte dies and after further tragic events the traumatized Arvin is sent to live with his grandmother.

The imagery is strong and highly emotive with descriptions of Willard's traumatic experiences during the war witnessing at one juncture a crucified soldier, and later of the sacrificing of a dog. Pollock teases us with plots and sub plots. Gives faint glimmers of people about to do right and then dashes your hopes when they do not follow through with their good intentions.

Nothing good ever seems to happen to anyone and I was constantly waiting to find out about the next piece of bad luck or misfortune to befall the next victim.  Its like road crash tv, you want to, OK...feel as if you should, turn away but are just too compelled to witness what these sad, miserable and often violent individuals will do next.

Amongst the multitude of compelling characters are:

Carl and Sandy Henderson, husband and wife who like to pick-up hitchhikers during their road trip vacations. Torture and then kill their prey whilst taking photographs for keepsakes;
The town's corrupt sheriff Lee Bodecker;
& travelling theatrical preachers Roy, and his crippled sidekick guitarist Theodore;

I don't want to detail too many of the townsfolk as I don't want to spoil the thrill of finding out about them as their woeful tales unravel.  However all the narratives are entwined and story lines converge in the novel's grand finale, which at long last may give a tiny glimmer of hope, for one individual at least.

The Devil All The Time is an uncomfortable tale about the darkness of human nature and the lengths people are prepared, willingly or reluctantly to go to when there is poverty, lack of education, loss of faith and little hope of ever escaping from such a miserable existence.

The Devil All The Time will not sit comfortably with everyone especially if you do not like violence, or a serious amount of swearing but if you enjoy extremely well written, clever plot lines about skank hillbilly townsfolk, serial killers, and a plethora of other perverted undesirables, I highly recommend it for those who can stomach it.

Favourite quote: "Some people were born just so they could be buried",

Lee Bodecker, Sheriff

Character most liked: A difficult one. I guess Arvin as he had an unimaginably miserable childhood and I desperately wanted his life to turn out better for him.

Character most disliked: Too many to choose from but I'll say it has to be Carl Henderson a psychotic, manipulative personality. Such an unsavoury slob of a character. Pollock's superb depiction of grotesque behaviour and mannerism of this character evoked such vivid imagery and that the smell of his bad breath and foul unwashed body odour almost had me gagging as it seeped from the pages.

'Knockemstiff' Pollock's collection of short stories published before The Devil All The Time is, in my opinion even more stomach churning. At least some redeeming features can be gleaned from the resident folk in The Devil All The Time.

Looking forward to reading Pollock's second novel,  'The Heavenly Table' published by Harvill Secker (14th July 2016).