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The Heavenly Table: A Novel
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The Heavenly Table: A Novel
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The Heavenly Table: A Novel
Audiobook13 hours

The Heavenly Table: A Novel

Written by Donald Ray Pollock

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

From Donald Ray Pollock, author of the highly acclaimed The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff, comes a dark, gritty, electrifying (and, disturbingly, weirdly funny) new novel that will solidify his place among the best contemporary American authors.

It is 1917, in that sliver of border land that divides Georgia from Alabama. Dispossessed farmer Pearl Jewett ekes out a hardscrabble existence with his three young sons: Cane (the eldest; handsome; intelligent); Cob (short; heavy set; a bit slow); and Chimney (the youngest; thin; ill-tempered). Several hundred miles away in southern Ohio, a farmer by the name of Ellsworth Fiddler lives with his son, Eddie, and his wife, Eula. After Ellsworth is swindled out of his family's entire fortune, his life is put on a surprising, unforgettable, and violent trajectory that will directly lead him to cross paths with the Jewetts. No good can come of it. Or can it?

In the gothic tradition of Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy with a healthy dose of cinematic violence reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, the Jewetts and the Fiddlers will find their lives colliding in increasingly dark and horrific ways, placing Donald Ray Pollock firmly in the company of the genre's literary masters.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 12, 2016
ISBN9780735208223
Unavailable
The Heavenly Table: A Novel
Author

Donald Ray Pollock

Donald R. Pollock is the author of Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time.

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Reviews for The Heavenly Table

Rating: 3.8473684210526318 out of 5 stars
4/5

95 ratings14 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I really liked “The Devil all the Time”, so I know that the author has real skill, but this book was pointless and became increasingly unpleasant to read. It’s part grit lit and part a shaggy dog story with sick humor. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book in which the male characters had worse attitudes towards the female characters (who exist only to service the men). This book was extremely penis-centered. It’s like the author accepted a challenge to see how many times he could work the word penis or variations thereof (and the uses to which it can be applied) into his book. He definitely won the challenge. There were two main groups of characters, but many more characters with colorful (ie, decadent, debauched, violent, criminal) back stories cropped up for a few pages and then vanished. It all amounted to nothing and I’m sorry that I wasted my time on it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have an uncle who saw the "Book of Mormon" without doing any research. He was offended. That is how I feel about the cry-baby reviewers prior to this review.It is DONALD RAY POLLOCK not Jennifer Weiner. Christ on a crutch, do your research.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In 1917, three brothers, the sons of a poor, widowed sharecropper hit the road when he dies and commence a robbing and killing spree from Georgia to Ohio. With the only book they own, The Life and Times of Bloody Bill Bucket, as a talisman and guide they try to make up for lost time in their lives of poverty. Their distinct personalities make for an interesting dynamic as they wend their way north, trying for Canada.An earthy, amusing, brutal story with finely drawn characters and a plot that keeps things moving.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Oh, well, either way, the sooner he took care of their questions, the sooner he could get back to his music. He was right on the verge of finishing his first original composition, a slow, mournful piece in eight movements meant to capture the educator's dread of returning to the classroom after the bliss of the summer break. Tentatively titled, "Might as Well Hang Myself," he had been working on it off and on for the past several years.Brace yourselves, because this is not a novel for the faint of heart. Set in 1917, it tells the story of the Jewett Gang, three brothers living in excruciating poverty on the Georgia-Alabama border until events send them on a bloody crime spree, and they move ever northwards, hoping to escape into Canada. In their path lies the farm of the hapless Ellsworth Fiddler and his wife, Eula, who are struggling to get by after being swindled out of their savings and their son ran off to join the army, which is establishing a base in the nearby town of Meade, Ohio, preparing volunteers to fight in Europe. Donald Ray Pollock has never been a writer who shields his readers from the world he's creating and in The Heavenly Table he describes every smell, every misdeed and every bodily fluid with a vividness that makes even ordinary daily activities less than pleasant. And here he's written a book full of less than pleasant individuals, most of whom spend their days involved in vile and/or unhygienic activities, all of which Pollock describes in a sort of cinematic technicolor. But don't let the violence fool you; Pollock is a talented writer and here he's also humorous. It's a fine tightrope to walk, to write a book that can make the reader cringe and laugh in the same paragraph, but Pollack has done it. This book is a bloodbath, and it's a bloodbath where a serial killer who tortures his captives to death and collects their teeth in a jar is a minor player. And yet Pollack also manages to add just enough heart and grace to humanize this novel. A killer who finds terrorizing a lone black man entertaining is the same person who realizes that the prostitute he visits has had a harder life than himself and who pitches in to help an old man with the harvest. The characters here may be very bad men, but you can't help pulling for them, or at least seeing them as people.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    DNF - I just can't make myself finish this, which is a shame as I'm at the 52% mark already. Any way, when it isn't totally boring it is extremely vulgar and full of perverted sex. I loved "The Devil All the Time" by the author which also was very dark and violent, but it had the advantage of being good. I read it in two days! This one I've been working on for almost a week and just can't bring myself to pick it up anymore. I still would like to read his collection of short stories, though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'll say 4.5, based on the ending which didn't wrap up as neatly as one might expect, but how could it when you have a thousand irons (exaggeration, of course!) in the fire? IMO, that didn't detract from the storytelling one bit.

    Whew. Book. Hangover.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    America in 1917 wasn't the best of times. With the advent of the automobile, (and the many resulting accidents), indoor water closets,(or lack thereof), and WWI far away, but in the background, it wasn't exactly a fun period in our history.

    The Heavenly Table introduces us to the Jewett Family, below dirt poor and with a father gone slightly insane since his wife died. He's trying to raise his boys, Chimney, Cob and Cane, the right way, but they're nearly starving to death; trading today's joy for wealth tomorrow, at God's heavenly table. We are also introduced to the Ellsworth family, the head of which was recently swindled out of the family's living savings.

    The characters are the strength of this story. Vividly drawn, realistic and understandable-some of them I will never forget. Another thing that stands out is the humor, it's sick as hell and runs rampant throughout. The barn full of whores, the sanitation inspector, (poor Jasper, you'll find out why), Pollard the insane bartender, and the crazy Lewis family and their chimpanzee. They're all going to be sharing my brain space for a while.

    The only problem I had with this tale was the uneven pacing, but even that didn't bother me very much. The characters were too interesting for me to leave them for any length of time.

    This book is a great example of gritty literature, or grit-lit, if you will. It's imaginative, entertaining and even sickening at times, but always commanding my attention and making me laugh. What more could you ask from a good book?

    Highly recommended to fans of gritty literature and dark humor!

    * Edited 7.22.16: Woot, I won a hardcover copy from Doubleday through the Goodreads giveaway. Thanks Doubleday!*

    *Thanks to Edelweiss and Doubleday for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great yarn more like Knockemstiff than Devil and full of laughs and squirms and winners
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock is a wonderful mix of lively adventure and vulgar satire as we read about three brothers: Cain, Cob and Chimney Jewett who, upon the death of their father, decide they have had enough of their hard scrabble life. Much in the manner of their pulp-fiction hero, Bloody Bill Bucket, they rob the landlord of his horses and his life and set off on a crime spree as they head north to Canada. It isn’t long before they become known as the notorious Jewett Gang with a large reward posted and a rag-tag posse on their heels. Meanwhile in the small town of Meade, Ohio, Eula and Ellsworth Fiddler are trying to recover after being swindled out of their life savings. Their alcoholic son has run off and although they are concerned about him, and Ellsworth has tried to find him, they come to realize that perhaps his absence is for the best. The Jewetts and the Fiddlers are destined to meet and the reader is constantly wondering whether this meeting will end in destruction or redemption. I was totally engaged by this rollicking story. Although the author follows the format of a classic western he challenges us with the setting, the timing and his subtle messaging. Given the level of violence and irreverent vulgarity, this is not a book for everyone but for me the author’s dry wit and humor, along with his descriptive prose and fabulous characters made The Heavenly Table a great read and Donald Ray Pollock an author that I will be reading again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    To be honest, I had a struggle with the book. Somehow, I didn't really like the time, the environment and the content, even if I have to hold the author to the advantage that it is well written.On the one hand, there are three brothers who have lost their parents and now want to go to Canada, robbing people along the way to get money, food, weapons and horses. On the other hand, there is a couple whose son suddenly no longer comes home. First, they think that he joined the military to take part in WWI in Europe. The father soon realizes that he just ran away.The following topics are also addressed: homosexuality, mental illness and racism.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In Donald Ray Pollock's novel “The Heavenly Table,” Cane, Chimney and Cob Jewett don't have much after their father dies suddenly, but their meager possessions do include two books. One is their father's Bible, from which Pearl Jewett had assumed came his theology that by working hard and suffering one will one day sit at the heavenly table with all the other hard-working, suffering saints. Thus Pearl and his boys had worked hard for little reward. The reward, Pearl insisted, would come later.When Pearl dies, Cane and Chimney decide they favor the gospel found in the second book, “The Life and Times of Bloody Bill Bucket,” an old dime novel about a former Confederate soldier who turns bank robber. Cane, the smartest of the brothers (which isn't saying much), argues that if they can rob a bank, then flee to Canada (they live in Georgia), they will have enough money to live comfortable and respectable lives.They don't plan on hurting anyone, but things happen in robberies, and soon the Jewett Gang is wanted, dead or alive, for multiple robberies and murders. The year is 1917, but like desperadoes in the Old West, they head for the border on horseback.Meanwhile Pollock introduces us to a variety of characters in Ohio, more characters than you might think he could possibly need. Yet skillfully he gives each of these people a purpose when the brothers finally reach Ohio.“The Heavenly Table,” although a terrific novel, is the kind of book that once might have been sold under the counter. It is as full of sex, violence and vulgar language as any you might find anywhere. So be forewarned. Much of it is also hilarious.Still the novel has a heart, and that heart belongs to Cob, the simplest and most innocent of the brothers. The question of whether he will ever sit at the heavenly table remains unanswered, but Pollock shows how, for him at least, a place at an earthly table might seem like heaven.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “That’s the one good thing about this here life. Nothin’ in it lasts for long.” It is 1917, in the deep south. We are introduced to the Jewett family. Pearl Jewett, a widower, with a God complex and his three young sons, Cane, Chimney, and Cobb. They are dirt poor and struggling but Pearl tells the boys, their reward, will be a seat at the “Heavenly Table”, if they live a straight and narrow life. The father suddenly dies, they lose the farm and the boys are adrift. Of course, they turn to a life of crime. The second narrative, follows Ellsworth Fiddler, a farmer from Ohio, who also is leading a hardscrabble life and has been recently swindled out of his life savings. The third narrative, is a wealthy young man, who becomes an officer in the military, gearing up for WWI. He is also struggling with his sexual identity. How the author ties these stories together, is one of the joys of this novel. He also populates the book with a vast array of quirky and dangerous characters. There is plenty of dry humor here and sudden bursts of violence. It has it all. This is my third Pollock read and he never disappoints. This one has not caught fire, like his first two, but it deserves wider recognition. If you liked The Sisters Brothers, you will like this one.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    “That’s the one good thing about this here life. Nothin’ in it lasts for long.”The Heavenly Table‘s cast of characters is extremely large and despite the extravagant and grandiose picture attempting to be painted, most characters were superfluous. There were two main stories, the first being the story of Pearl Jewett and his three sons, Cane, Chimney, and Cobb. Their father is something of a religious man and believed that the harder they lived here on Earth, the higher chance they would earn a seat at the heavenly table. They lived the hardest existence possible without succumbing to it. Until the day that Pearl did, and his boys decided to hell with the heavenly table, they wanted to live good now. They began with a murder, followed it up with a bank robbery, and went on from there.The second is the story of a farmer named Ellsworth Fiddler, a farmer in Ohio, who also leads a hard existence but only because he got swindled out of his life savings. On top of that, his son, who was the only help he had with farm work, has up and disappeared. The year is 1917 and war is brewing and Ellsworth believes he joined up and hopes that he can finally make something of himself.These stories were all well and good but we’re given full accounts of several other storylines that never really ended up amounting to much. The military officer that gets dumped, discovers he’s gay, decides to kill himself but decides at the last minute to enlist so he can die honorably in the war instead. The black man that uses and abuses women travels home to visit his family but finds himself mixed up with the Jewett’s. The bar keep in a small town that likes kidnapping and torturing people for the hell of it. And last but certainly not least, the sanitation inspector with a giant penis. I’m not kidding. At one point it’s referred to as a “long slab of meat.” I think that about covers everything but goddamn was it convoluted. The chapters, of which there are 72 in total, are short and to the point which didn’t exactly help when you’re trying to connect and under such an extensive cast of characters. All in all it made for quite the rocky read.The Devil All the Time, Pollock’s debut novel, is one of my all time favorites and is the book that solidified my love of southern gothic fiction. It hosted a cast of perverse characters and was extremely violent brash, but damn was it brilliant. The Heavenly Table introduces a brand new cast of perverse characters but there was a distinctly vulgar quality to Pollock’s sophomore effort that I found fairly unpleasant. Here are just a few examples:‘Even Esther, probably the least self-conscious person he’d ever met, occasionally got the jitters if too many voyeurs crowded into her tent to watch her play a tune on some john’s skin flute.’and‘Bovard had stumbled to his quarters so aroused from what Malone had said that he was still awake at reveille, his handkerchief stiff with ejaculate and his hand cramped so badly that he had a difficult time lacing up his boots.’Pollock excels at portraying the backwoods down South mentality. He highlights just how poor the poor were and the lengths they would go just to climb out of the station assigned to them at birth. It’s sad and devastating when you really think about it, but Pollock’s delivery is done in such a way so as to not garner sympathy. He simply tells it like it is. The added facet of WWI seemed an unnecessary inclusion at first but it only aided in highlighting the small mindedness of these people and how unaware they are of the vastness of the world around them.“And what’s this?” Eula said, pointing at the broad expanse of blue that separated America from Europe while waving gnats away from her face.“That’s the Atlantic Ocean.”Ellsworth leaned in for a closer look. “Why, that don’t look no bigger than Clancy’s pond,” he said.Times were changing for these people, whether they liked it or not. Not just with the war either but with new technology and even evolving mindsets. It was a time of change and seeing these characters confronted with it was most fascinating.I never thought to expect more novels from Pollock, I was sure that The Devil All the Time was destined to be his only one, and while this one was quite a disappointment overall it’s still fantastic to see southern gothic continue to grow in popularity.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the early 20th century, the three Jewett brothers are under the thumb of their crazily religious, impoverished failure of a father. He’s working them practically to death in the swampy field they’re clearing near the Georgia-Alabama border. The wealthy landowner has promised that if they meet some impossible deadline, he will give them 10 laying hens. If so, maybe they will finally have something to eat. What the reader knows is he has no intention of keeping that promise.A couple of states north, in southern Ohio, live the elderly farmer Ellsworth Fiddler and his wife Eula, also struggling. The previous year, Ells gave all the savings Eula had scraped together over the decades to a flim-flam man who stole the family’s pride and hope along with their cash. The title of this literary crime novel reveals its theme. Early on, Pearl Jewett encounters a mysterious hobo with a long grizzled beard who tells him about the heavenly table. There, a man’s hungers will be satisfied, but only those who have suffered in life can sit there. God gives men the chance to suffer by bringing them troubles. Thereafter, Pearl actively pursues misery for himself and his boys, to ensure their place there.When Pearl dies, the three boys fall into a life of crime, stealing guns and robbing stores and banks on their way north to Canada. They soon become wanted men, with a heavy price on their heads. They need to lie low for a while, which brings them to a brief sojourn on the farm of Ellsworth and Eula Fiddler near the small town of Meade.Many other colorful characters weave in and out of the brothers’ lives, including Jasper Cone, the Meade “sanitarian,” whose job is to assess the functioning of the town’s hundreds of outhouses; Sugar, a black man whom the trio encounters and torments; Pollard, owner of the Blind Owl bar and a sadistic killer; and Lieutenant Bovard at the nearby army camp who dreams of dying in glory in France.Reviewers of Pollock’s previous books, Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time, compared him to William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor for his gothic southernness and unsettling storylines. This book reminds me of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree, deemed a comic masterpiece. The Heavenly Table has its brief comic moments, though it’s mostly the darkest of Southern Noir. Living in squalor, uneducated, making bad decisions, drinking too much, and succumbing to violence, few of the characters have any hope for redemption in this life or of reaching “the heavenly table” in the next. But as Jason Sheehan said for NPR, by the end of the book, it turns “a smart and complicated corner, asking (without ever really asking) who are the bad men and who are the good? And just how much blame for badness can be laid at the feet of those who know nothing and fear everything, who have no recourse to change but that it be met with furious violence?”To read this book, you’ll need a strong stomach and may want a hot shower afterward, but you’ll never forget Pollock’s compelling characters and powerful writing.