Knockemstiff

Donald Ray Pollock tells it like it is--and them some. The name of the work and the reviews posted here and elsewhere were incentives to check this out. I was surprisingly impressed. The characters are not likable at all---drug addicts, molesters, murderers, perverts, and abusers--so you can't help but feel something negative for them, most likely. The "something" is precisely what I can't pinpoint. Is it disgust? Is it... Read Full Review

Donald Ray Pollock is talented. His style of writing is one that feels like spontaneous impressions of a tribal people from which he takes the reader by the collar and spins wild tales, all the while making us believe each of his weirdly comic/tragic characters actually exists. Pollock's vantage is not unlike the gopher who happens to burrow up into a strange neighborhood, glances about is total disbelief, then scurries back... Read Full Review

Donald Ray Pollock's my hero. He's taken a leap into space and he's not coming back. I'm only half way through this book, but it's already been worth the money. More than worth it. I'm taking my time with it. This man who stopped at age 45 to write his book; he felt it was now or never. He didn't want to go to his grave without trying. Now he has carved out a career -- away from driving trucks or working at a meat packing... Read Full Review

These stories are intense, quirky, a little down-dirty, and fascinating. If someone had described this book to me before I'd read it, I might have thought "not my thing". The characters are not especially likable, the stories are not particularly uplifting. Then again, that's part of the point. Even though part of me kept thinking "can't one of these folks get their bleep together and live a happy life?", the rest of me... Read Full Review