Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
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Book Reviews of Knockemstiff
Book Review: "Forgetting our lives might be the best we'll ever do."
Summary: 5 Stars
The stories found In "Knockemstiff," Donald Ray Pollock's raw and powerful literary debut, are not for the faint of heart. Brutal and uncompromising, they capture the hardscrabble lives of the residents of Knockemstiff, Ohio - the very same town that Pollock comes from (although he cautiously points out in his acknowledgments that the actual residents of his hometown are really "good people who never hesitated to help someone in a time of need").
"My father showed me how to hurt a man one August night at the Torch Drive-in when I was seven years old. It was the only thing he was ever any good at." With these words Pollock opens his story collection, and over the next two hundred pages it doesn't get any prettier. In many cases, it only gets grittier and more difficult. Substance abuse, neglect, loneliness, dependency, abuse (of both spouses and children), betrayal, shocking outbursts of violence, and even murder are found in virtually every episode. Undoubtedly this has led to those unfair one star reviews that dismiss Pollock's work as depressing and unreadable. Those readers are justified to have that opinion, but I don't know how they could deny the power of his prose. Having lived a hardscrabble life himself, dropping out of high school, working at a meatpacking plant and a paper mill for thirty years and struggling through stints in rehab, Pollock writes with an authority and packs a punch that can only come with experience, making it quite difficult to believe that this is only his first collection. Truly, his talent was a major discovery.
Reading "Knockemstiff" is a mesmerizing, if unsettling, experience unlike any other I've had since I read Denis Johnson's superb Jesus' Son: Stories by. Sure, it isn't for everyone, but I don't see how anyone could put this book down after finishing the first story. Those of us with the stomach will thank Pollock for the ride when it's all over.
Also recommended to fans of Chuck Palahniuk's novels such as Choke.
Grade: A
Book Review: Knocked Stiff
Summary: 5 Stars
Knockemstiff, a town in southern Ohio, is nothing more than a handful of houses and empty shacks. Being from 12 miles out, in what's called Meade in the book (Chillicothe in real life), I've heard the stories: brawls in public, the hookers waiting in their trailers for a knock at the door, bars that don't let women in even today, and just some really rough people. It's portrayed in the book as a collection of characters that are "stuck". Southern Ohio has a unique flavor in literature: it's down-home country but edgy, it's sad and heartbreaking yet somehow a hope and resilience shines through every character (I mean, they're still living, right?). The book spans in the 1960s through the 90s, giving the reader a sense of the "other-worldliness" that is living in a tiny town. Things don't change even when the night news says they have. The high school football team is still the center of the universe, the paper mill offers a steady job (so why would anyone leave to get more education?), and family is at the center of everything (whether that be a blessing or a curse). Knockemstiff is definitely a living setting in this collection of short stories: even the name of the town stands for either a fight or the homemade liquor famous from those parts. Knockemstiff holds its residents hostage, hugs them tight, and then throws them out.
There are many stereotypes about the culture of this region of Appalachia. Pollock personifies these stereotypes: incest, trailer trash, deadbeat non-educated, racist, homo-phobic, stuck in the past, shift-working, Frito-crunching, RC-drinking junkies. But he does so in a way that you know there's a glimmer of hope in each one of the characters.
Great book.
Book Review: Stories better than the one I just read.
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently read a short story. I saw the author's credentials and everything and everything was pretty on the up and up...a master's degree, lots of publishing experience. This particular story was about a guy who followed his animal instincts and wound up in big trouble because of it. He had a sad life and was trying to escape it. He made it worse, inadvertently. Marriage was gone, kids were gone, that kind of thing. He was a loser, is what I'm saying. He lived a loser and died one too. And that was it. I didn't like that story at all, mainly because it lacked that Joyce-ian epiphany quality. That revelation that turned the whole thing. Not that it had to erase the guy's loser-dom. It just didn't provide anything other than information. And that information was here's a loser. That's all.
Donald Ray Pollock's Knockemstiff is a collection of stories about folks that many would call losers. The thing that drew me in about them was that Pollock writes with a compassion that was not present in the example above. That compassion makes this collection extremely compelling. It evoked empathy in me, even against my will, kind of. I found myself going, "I don't want to feel for that guy! But, I do!" That compassion also gives it that particular Joyce-ian quality, that revelation where we the readers have a peek into the interconnectedness of humanity. Pollock really helps the reader see that, even in some of the grimmest physical, mental and spiritual states in which his characters exist. Definitely well worth the read. Brace yourself, because it's pretty messy. But a high recommendation from me.
Book Review: Nice collection of.......
Summary: 5 Stars
"Knockemstiff" is depressing as hell! But not in the sense that the book isn't any good, it is. The book is about the town of Knockemstiff, Ohio and there just isn't anything happy about the place.
This book has a little bit of everything: drugs, rape, murder, incest, sex, corruption, addiction, love, racism, steroids, domestic abuse, theft, fishsticks and a whole lot of other things I would rather not mention in my review!
It's a very gritty but quick read, only 203 pages. Their are 18 individual stories with some reaccuring characters throughout it. The stories, if not true, could easily be true and most likely have happened sometime / somewhere out there!
Many of the things these unruly characters in the book do, would make most of us cringe (or gag, faint or run away), but hey, this is Knockemstiff, you gotta do, what you gotta do to get by and it "ain't" pretty!
You've been warned.....
The 18 stories in the book are:
Real Life (5/5 stars)
Dynamite Hole (5/5 stars)
Knockemstiff (3/5 stars)
Hair's Fate (5/5 stars)
Pills (4/5 stars)
Giganthomacy (3/5 stars)
Schott's Bridge (4/5 stars)
Lard (3/5 stars)
Fish Sticks (4/5 stars)
Bactine (5/5 stars)
Discipline (5/5 stars)
Assailants (5/5 stars)
Rainy Sunday (3/5 stars)
Holler (3/5 stars)
I Start Over (4/5 stars)
Blessed (5/5 stars)
Honolulu (4/5 stars)
The Fights (4/5 stars)
Good luck and enjoy.......
Book Review: NASTY, SHOCKING, WONDERFUL!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
KNOCKEMSTIFF
Not being a fan of short stories, I was hesitant to pick this one up; however, am I glad that I did! There are 18 short stories, most of them involving characters from previous stories, all of them rather inter-weaving. All of them take place in Knockemstiff, Ohio.
You can live anywhere in the world and there are people like these characters. Sad, white-trash, losers, hooked on dope and booze, dirty, sleazy, lazy, nasty people that you pray never would live next door to you or for that matter on the same block! These characters were so believeable and yes, scary, they seemed so hopeless and pathetic. Yet, these people do care about others and there is always the essense of the human touch. Some of them hate who they are and how they live and try and try to better themselves. Wow, these characters never ceased to amaze me! This is a quick read, very fast-paced and I was constantly surprised and shocked!
The writing is wonderful, the stories are wonderful. The book is different and not for people who shock easily or who take offense. If nasty sex and drugs and booze and dirty living conditions and grossness would upset you, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.
However, you should just go for it and read this great book; otherwise, you are certainly cheating yourself out of a terrific piece of writing.
This is a graphic book; I loved it. I will certainly recommed it to all of my friends!
Thank you!
Pam