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 pity? Perhaps the uncertainty is what resonates most with me. I do know that I sense the "human-ness" of these characters. They're stupid, stingy, and mean. They're ignorant, dishonest and short-sighted. They connect in ways that are vulgar and bizarre (literally and figuratively). But they're smart, too, as survivors must be--painfully aware of where they are and how they live. There's something really odd (I'm referring to myself) in finding amusement in reading about an individual's prolonged suffering, however fictional. I'm that woman passing by, taking pictures for my book, except that Knockemstiff is my photograph and the book is my shelf. You'll laugh, flinch, and be "grossed out," but you will be moved in ways that are rare for a work of this subject matter. When you're done, you'll maybe wish that the book hadn't have gone by so quickly.

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 down in wonder about the current state of the world: the mound he leaves behind is this highly entertaining book. Though Knockemstiff is an actual place in the remnants of a once settled and civilized Ohio, Pollock uses the place as the matrix from which he devises some of the strangest stories in literature. Though the book is a collection of short stories, Pollock ties some of the characters together in different stories giving the reader the idea that the number of creatures who populate this degenerate town are so few that they must serve as actors more than once. These people are often disabled by drugs, alcohol, physical abnormalities, mental derangements, or the products of barely together couplings that mutually drive partners into bizarre behaviors. Pollock can create suggestive sexual scenes only to remind the reader with the use of brittle descriptions that the surroundings are peppered with detritus, enough to keep the lights on. Each of the aimlessly unhappy folks we encounter retains an edge of humor (despite some impressively dour physical attributes) and that is in the end what keeps the reader engaged. To retain interest in these folks through eighteen varied (but not dissimilar) stories Pollock is forced to occasionally rely on fantasy episodes out of town, but he deftly keeps his characters in the dirt/mud/snow of Knockemstiff in a manner that keeps the thwarted dreams grounded. Pollock uses a language that is rich and colorful, and even while his characters seem to be disengaged from a happy life, he manages to take some flights into the beauty of nature - yes, even in Knockemstiff, Ohio the land can be beautiful. The stories he has written can be read quickly, but the metaphors each carry need some time to absorb. There is a little of each of us somewhere in Knockemstiff, whether we admit it or not. For a first novel, this is a winner! Donald Ray Pollock IS talented. Grady Harp, April 08

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 plant. That's guts, and he's good. I don't know where he gets his stories, how he writes so well, or how he sleeps at night. But he's driving at 120 miles per hour to a place that's impossible to describe. Just amazing. Bill

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 was busy wallowing in their misery. Aside from the content of the stories, the writing style is interesting. Some of the descriptions made me chuckle, and a few of them brought on the thought "yeah, that's it exactly!". There are a couple of Pollock's stories to be found online if you want to get a taste before committing to the book- but it's hardly necessary. You probably won't be able to turn away.