THE SILENT & SINFUL ERA: SCOTT PHILLIPS' THE DEVIL RAISES HIS OWN

It appears part of Scott Phillips' mission as writer is to deflate built up perceptions. From his first book, The Ice Harvest, he poked at the hypocrisy of "midwestern values". He also takes the rose tint out of nostalgia, particularly with his character Bill Ogden who gave us a different perspective of westward expansion in the books Cottonwood and Hop Alley. Now, he takes an older Bill and drops him in the early days of Hollywood in The Devil Raises His Own.

Bill and his granddaughter Flavia, who just fled Kansas after killing her abusive husband. set up a photography studio in 1916 Los Angeles as the Great War escalates toward America joining. When not photographing and bedding widows, Bill makes a good portion of their living off providing stills for Magnificant Educational Distribution Company, a stag film operation specializing in lesbian content operated George Kaplan and Irene Tessler, a couple in a "marriage of convenience".

Much of the plot and many of the characters run through George and Tess's studio as two-reel comedy maker Clyde Grady partners with them and they expand to larger productions and into male-on-male action. Trudy Cromie, a single mom who walks the streets and perform in the films to support her two kids, questions her sexuality due to the advances of her costar. A postal inspector puts MEDC in an uncomfortable position, blackmailing the owners with a unique demand. Tommy Gill, a flailing second tier performer in Grady's two-reelers finds possible fame through the abuse Trudy's kids give him. Riding into the rails into town are two men, Henry a young, slightly naive worker who finds a job with Bill and possible relationship with Flavia, and Ezra, a sociopath with an innocent outlook and nasty way of using a claw hammer.

Phillips weaves these people and their stories together, much like a classic Robert Altman movie. Every character character is fully formed and interesting, often funny, defined more by their flaws than virtues. They all collide toward a violent and wild night for a huge climax. None of the character connections or story threads that brush up against each other feel like plot coincidences due to the author portraying the L.A. of this time as a company town where everyone rubs rubs elbows and other body parts.

He finds a way to find the humanity in all of the low rent Babylon luridness. His anti-heroes aren't as much evil or bad people as slaves to their desires whether it be lust, greed, or drink. Bill, takes one of the most morally backed actions in a very questionable way. Ezra comes off as a goof, not completely connected to his violent actions that he commits in a deluded way to regain his family.

The Devil Raises His Own depicts the place and time from a ground level point of view that Phillips then takes a different angle on. It takes place more in small studios and bars that major backlots and movie star mansions. It's best represented in a watering hole Bill Ogden imbibes in along with real life actor Francis Feeney. The town serves as a small playground for everyone's indulgences. L.A, itself, appears to be Satan, attracting as well as raising its own. Can't help but be attracted to him anyway.