Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
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Book Reviews of Knockemstiff
Book Review: Great reading and a good argument for guns
Summary: 5 Stars
Powerful stuff here! The blackest of black humor leavened with sympathy for the human condition.
Pollock's dazed, doomed, deranged and damned characters huff Bactine and guzzle rotgut, are driven nuts by metal plates in their heads, suffer abusive parents or are abusive parents themselves, pump themselves full of killer steroids, crash cars, rob, rape, beat, get beaten, have heart attacks and strokes, and in general stagger, lost and confused and abused, through miserable ghastly dead-end lives in a bleak trashpit of a town that make the phrase "hell on earth" seem way understated.
This book is a great argument for gun rights -- realizing that people like this probably live just a short drive from any of us makes me glad to have firepower handy.
Strong and distinctive writing brings it all very, very alive. Each story is short and fast-reading and packs a punch -- there's not a loser in the bunch -- and the stories are connected by characters and place in a way that makes this almost as much a novel as a collection of stories.
Pollock reminds me somewhat of, to pick a few of my favorites, Bukowski, Harry Crews, Erkskine Caldwell and Eudora Welty, but he's an original voice who has carved out his own territory. Pollock has written one hell of a book and I hope he writes more.
Book Review: A really good collection of stories
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Knockemstiff Revisited
Summary: 5 Stars
First time I came across Donald Ray Pollock was in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer interview 20 MAR 2008 by John Marshall, the P-I Book Critic. This was followed with an interview on NPR 12 APR 2008, Weekend Edition Saturday. I ordered "Knockemstiff" after Marshall's article, and when I finished reading it I immediately ordered another copy for my nephew, who lives in Columbus, OH.
I was impressed with the first read, more impressed with the second, and convinced with the third read that Mr. Pollock's work will endure for its originality and literary skill. The words flow and a sudden expression will be made that will involuntarily cause you to smile, or be saddened, by this talented writer.
"Knockemstiff" is considered a collection of short stories. I prefer to call it a novella, as the stories are finely interwoven. The best demonstration of what Mr. Pollock is capable of creating is to read "Fish Sticks" and "Assailants" in sequence. The character development of Geraldine and Del in so few words is extraordinary. "Real Life", "Pills", and "The Fights" give you snapshots of Bobby that make you understand where he came from, where he went, and why he's where he's at. My hat off to Mr. Pollock, and I anxiously await his next work.
Book Review: A bit of tragic mirth
Summary: 5 Stars
People who beat their kids in Wal-Mart, 4-wheelers with ice chests strapped on the back, mullet haircuts, truck beds with empty 40 oz. cans bouncing out. If these phenomena fascinate and appall you and make you ponder human nature, then you'll love hearing Pollock channel the fictional folks of Knockemstiff, Ohio. The dialect, the sly, funny commentary, and the arrangement of the stories reveal a master craftsman at work.
Knockemstiff reminded me of the Flannery O'Connor stories I read and loved years back. I was never good at geography, but I'm thinking Southern Ohio must be the Deep South of the Midwest. Pollock creates a raft of misfits who, one-by-one, grab you by the hair and tell you their perverse stories. Dark, funny, pathetic, the characters almost make you want to drive to your own local doughnut shop and see who's there at 3:00 a.m.
After devouring this book, I loaned it to a buddy so I would have someone to talk to about it. Now, I'm thinking I should have read it once or twice more before letting it leave the house. Or better yet, I should have bought a second copy...
Book Review: Knocked Stiff
Summary: 5 Stars
When I saw a bookseller reading an advance copy of "Knockemstiff", I asked her what she thought. "It's amazing, but I can only read a couple of the stories at a time--otherwise, I lose my faith in humanity." I thought, damn, that sounds like a good recommendation!
The stories in this collection are loosely connected in a style similar to Denis Johnson's "Jesus' Son," one of Pollock's favorite books. He paints a gritty portrait of rural life in Pollock's real life (but fictionalized) corner of the world in southern Ohio. You might cry while reading this book--but whether those are tears of laughter or pain will be determined by how dark your own sense of humor is.
Fellow Doubleday author Chuck Palahniuk has an audio interview with Pollock available on his website. Additionally, "Knockemstiff" is drawing positive comparisons to other regionalistic writers such as the aforementioned Denis Johnson and Chris Offutt. While the buzz will draw readers to this debut collection, the stories will keep readers around.