Knockemstiff
by Donald Ray Pollock
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donald Ray PollockEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-18
ISBN: 0385523823
Number of pages: 206
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of Knockemstiff
Book Review: America's Lumpenproletariat ...
Summary: 5 Stars
Donald Ray Pollock has written a truly remarkable collection of stories. They are an unflinching look at the American underclass. You just "know" that none of these people vote; indeed, most would be lucky to know who the President of the United States is. Their hopes are severely constrained. Perhaps the most ambitious are those who want their son to win the `Mr. South Ohio' body building contest or manage to get out of town lured by a Texas oil field job. But most reserve their daily efforts to scoring a few more hits of meth, or even just a carton of cigarettes. High on the shortlist of criteria for girl friend selection is: "...and a monthly government check."
The stories are not "redemptive," and certainly lack the happy ending and pleasant prose that the, to date, 6 1-star reviewers seem to yearn for. And the book is all the more important for that reason - so few of the book-reading public has the knowledge and experience with this "other world" that is always so near, if we want to look. The stories are set in south central Ohio, but could also be placed here in Albuquerque, where the same people wash down Central Ave., the old Route 66, allegedly trying to get to California where their life will be different, or even more discouragingly, struggle "back East" when they found out it was not. Other reviewers have compared Pollock to other writers, some familiar, like McCarthy, some not, like Palahniuk. I'd like to suggest a couple others: Richard Ford, particularly his collection of short-stories on the underclass "out West," entitled "Rock Springs," and Jean Genet, both his "Notre Dame des Fleurs" and "The Thief's Journal."
As Genet did, Pollack has clearly rubbed shoulders with this underclass, which has given his dialogue an almost perfect pitch quality. Likewise, he has the ability to create a scene with the most succinct, authentic detail. For example: in the story entitled "Bactine," "... let alone seeing him at one of the reunions we used to have when our family was still permitted in the state parks." Or in "Rainy Sunday," "She crammed some empty pop cans and fast-food containers under the seat to make room for her feet." These two stories also illustrate a technique that some try, but Pollack has mastered: telling the same event from different perspectives. In "Bactine" two men are "hanging out" at the Crispie Cream at 3:00 am, and describe two women who have just entered. "Rainy Sunday" tells the same event from the women's point of view.
Much of the anguish in these stories is self-inflicted, but a few deal with what we will all face - the naturally occurring failings of the human body. Such is the case of Howard Bowman's Alzheimer's, described in the story "Honolulu," and his wife's valiant, but losing fight for him to retain his memory.
Overall, Pollock can evoke so much pathos in the reader over the "poverty of human existence" that it would be a strong one indeed who could finish the book in one setting. If there is a shortcoming to these stories it is only in the one that is missing - and could be readily remedied. Like Genet, how did Pollack do it? Of all the people who have inhabited this nether world, how is it that only a very few surface, and convey their insights to the rest of us? Now that story might be "redemptive," and I look forward to it.
Summary of Knockemstiff
In this unforgettable work of fiction, Donald Ray Pollock peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted but resilient lives of its residents.Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled and depraved?but irresistibly, undeniably real. Rendered in the American vernacular with vivid imagery and a wry, dark sense of humor, these thwarted and sometimes violent lives jump off the page at the reader with inexorable force. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence, a bracing absence of value judgments, and a refreshingly dark sense of bottom-dog humor.
With an artistic instinct honed on the works of Flannery O?Connor and Harry Crews, Pollock offers a powerful work of fiction in the classic American vein. Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place.
Amazon Significant Seven, March 2008: A quick Internet search for "Knockemstiff, Ohio" reveals a lazy nexus of shabby houses and dirt roads in southern Ohio, lacking a post office and grocery store, but rich in legends of epic fistfights and swamp-dwelling ghosts. Donald Ray Pollock, a native of this "ghost town," populates his own Knockemstiff with living revenants: huffers, murderers, sex fiends, and their hapless (though not innocent) victims, all tethered to the woebegone "holler" by their own self-inflicted shortcomings and depravities. Pollock pulls no punches--his prose is blunt and visceral, as well as stylish and skilled--and reading these mini grand guignols can be like crunching on a mouthful of your own broken teeth. He resists casting judgment (or sympathy) on his doomed reprobates; predator or prey (or sometimes both), Pollock contemplates his characters with all the warmth of a "frozen bleach bottle." It's an astonishing debut. --Jon Foro
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