Real life is pretty grim right now, so I'm having a little trouble with this very dark book. I've read enough to feel that I'll really enjoy it at the right time, but now is not that time. So I'm reshelving it under "try again later" and picking something lighter for my Booklikes-opoly square. 

 

Finished Ch 1. It's a promising start, but pretty grim. It's horror, of course, but I'm accustomed to a little dark humor with the horror, and I can't detect any yet. 

 

When their father dies, the Jewett brothers are left without guidance until they decide to emulate their hero, a dime-novel hero called Bloody Bill Bucket. Their bloody trail crosses the paths of a farmer named Ellsworth Fiddler and a hobo named Sugar. Will the brothers make it to Canada alive to live out their days in peace?

I got this from Netgalley.

The Heavenly Table is the tale of the three Jewett brothers and the people they encounter after striking out on their own after their father Pearl dies. Dirt poor and ignorant of the ways of the world, Cane, Cob, and Chimney take up robbing banks in the manner of their dime-novel hero, Bloody Bill Bucket.

The tale Donald Ray Pollock crafts here is full of violence and dark humor. There's drinking, killing, whoring, and even a trained chimpanzee. The five plot threads repeatedly intersect until almost everyone is dead. Pollard the bartender, Sugar the bum, Jasper the sanitation inspector, Ellsworth Fiddler, the farmer with terrible luck, and Bovard, the secretly gay army officer, all flitter around the edges of the Jewetts' tale, periodically intersecting with them. Jasper, the outhouse inspector with a wang like the size of a baguette, was my favorite of the supporting players.

The Jewett brothers were an interesting mix. Cane, the oldest and smartest, was the leader. Cob, the simpleton, stayed with the others out of loyalty, and Chimney, the hothead, was lucky he survived childhood. Much like [b:Knockemstiff|1704719|Knockemstiff|Donald Ray Pollock|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1424959738s/1704719.jpg|1701841], the setting was a vivid part of the story. The town of Meade felt so real I could almost smell it at times.

When things finally came together at the end, it was one bloody encounter after the next. I was glad the people who lived through it lived through it. The dark humor was unquestionably my favorite part of the story. I repeatedly interrupted my lady friend's Harry Potter reading with talk of going to the Whore Barn and other questionable things.

With the Heavenly Table, Donald Ray Pollock serves up another heaping helping of country noir. Four out of five stars.

 

I couldn't put this down, read it in one go, was drawn in at the first page.

 

Wow.

 

This was not a light or mild read. This was a dark story with many characters that you could firmly put it the "bad to evil" section. But that doesn't sound completely right, because every character gets its own story - how wrong some of their doings may feel, you still experience them as human beings. And you can't help but feel some kind of compassion for them - best examples are Sandy or Theodore.

 

This was written so well. I enjoyed simply reading sentence after sentence.

 

I don't want to talk about the story, the intricate plot lines, the furious chase to the finale - let's just say that pacing and plotting were perfect in my opinion.

 

This was one of the most impressing books I've read in a long time.

 

Absolutely recommended. But not for the faint of heart or readers who want a good laugh or chuckle out of their read...but count on the goose bump skin!