Writing and reading
Ross County’s Donald Ray Pollock has novel made into movie, then is called upon to be film’s narrator
“The Devil All the Time,” which premiered last week in theaters and on Netflix, is set in rural West Virginia and in a mid-20th century version of Ross County, Ohio, where serial killers cross paths with religious fanatics and corrupt law officers.
Donald Ray Pollock, who wrote the 2011 novel on which the movie is based, has lived in Ross County all his life. After working for more than 30 years at a paper mill in Chillicothe and attending college at Ohio University part-time, he quit his job, started writing and enrolled in the master's of fine arts in creative writing program at Ohio State University, graduating in 2005.
His first collection of stories, “Knockemstiff ” — named for his hometown — was published in 2008, followed by “The Devil All the Time” and “The Heavenly Table” in 2016.
Pollock does the voiceover for the grimly faithful film version of “The Devil All the Time,” which was directed by Antonio Campos and adapted by him and his brother, Paulo Campos. The cast includes Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgard and Robert Pattinson.
Pollock, 65, spoke from his home in Chillicothe about his influences, his role in making the movie and what’s next.
Question: How do you think the area where you live, and which you write about, has changed over the course of your life?
Pollock: I think the whole country has changed in all these little rural spots over the years because of the internet and cable TV and all that stuff. One of the darker forces at work around here in the last few years has been the opioid crisis. There has been a lot more crime and families being broken up.
Q: Do you think of southern Ohio as closer to the South or the North of the United States?
Pollock: I would say a little more to the South. We’re only about 45 minutes from the Ohio River. When I was growing up, a lot of the people I was around were from West Virginia and Kentucky and had moved up here thinking it might be a little better economically.
Q: Do you feel more drawn to Southern writers or Northern ones?
Pollock: Of course, when I was starting out, I read a lot of different writers. But I was fascinated with Christian fundamentalism, and there was more of that with Southern writers. And with some of the Southern writers, there was this strain of humor that I really liked. Even when things were dark,
See POLLOCK, Page B7