Pollock has a talent for bringing alive many characters and diving into people’s most private perversions, digging them up humorously and presenting it to you. You’ll probably going to shake your head at times but won’t eschew a chuckle, smile or even laugh.
The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are a lot of characters in The Heavenly Table and this might drive some people off, especially if he introduces certain characters only to kill them off a page later. If you want a story only to follow, you are probably going to be disappointed. While the main protagonists – three brothers on a robbing tour across the country, and a farmer and his wife – still take the most space in this book and are the driving force of this book’s story, it is also a story with a cynical look at certain kind of societies, jobs, politicians, lawmen and other people you’ve probably come across in your life or heard about; of course, in an extremely exaggerated way but certainly not too far from an at least thinkable truth.
Still, there are likable characters because some of them, despite their flaws, have a moral code we can identify with. Dim-witted brother Cob only is probably the most modest person you’ll know and only wants to eat and work (honest work, mind you) and sleep, despises killing or hurting anything that lives, mind you, and yet runs along with his more shooting-prone brothers because they all never parted a single day for their whole life.
Still, there are likeable characters because some of them, despite their flaws, have a moral code we can identify with. Dim-witted brother Cob only is probably the most modest person you’ll know and only wants to eat and work (honest work, mind you) and sleep, despises killing or hurting anything that lives, mind you, and yet runs along with his more shooting-prone brothers because they all never parted a single day for their whole life.
Then you have the farmer Elsworth and his wife Eula who also live a middling live at best, are uneducated and made some very poor life decisions but ultimately have the best marriage and relationship with each other than any other character in this novel and they stick together no matter what and try to make the best out of what this cynical world had dealt them.
It’s macabre, funny and a joy to read. Just because it doesn’t follow too many storytelling conventions from your typical mainstream book you shouldn’t skip on this. Especially if you liked Pollock’s other works.
