In Knockemstiff — named for the southern Ohio town where Pollock grew up — characters knockemstjff each other out of boredom, drink to oblivion, soil themselves and assault their neighbors.The raunchy collection of 18 stories spans more than 30 years of violence, failure, depravity and stagnation in a town where residents “live pretty trapped lives,” Pollock says. Though he always loved reading and writing, Pollock says, he never had the discipline for the writer’s life until he was By the time I was a freshman in high school I had read everything we had in the small library in school.But I never really had the discipline or wherewithal to try,” he says.

Loosely based on the author’s own life in the town of Knockemstiff, Ohio, the linked stories portray a community riven by violence, drug addiction, and sexual abuse. A former paper-mill worker and a recovering alcoholic, Pollock came to writing late in life. It was the third set of wheels in a year. It was the only thing he was ever any good at. I tore at the skin with my teeth. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The only display of civic pride evident in Donald Ray Pollock’s first book is a blue tattoo — the words “Knockemstiff, Ohio” — etched “like a road. Soon you will be saying to yourself "Hmmm, well at least I'm not a crackhead, huffer, morbidly obesse whore, alcoholic or steroid user........I just can't stand my boss". These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Yeah.
Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email.April 12, 5: Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday. Two recent story recent story collections represent a particular strain of American short story writing represented by master such as Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver and also the harsh viewpoint on American life found in Dashiell Hammett, James M Cain, and Nathaniel West. "Americans used to be titillated by tales of the Dark Continent; now they are titillated by closer-to-home tales of the Rural Wasteland. Knockemstiff is a collection of 18 short stories set in Knockemstiff, Ohio.Knockemstiff is a collection of 18 short stories set in Knockemstiff, Ohio.I don’t know if I should consider this redneck noir or hick lit, but I like it.I don’t know if I should consider this redneck noir or hick lit, but I like it.One reason to wait until you're 50 to begin your career as an author is that you plan to write stuff like this. A google search of what I thought for a second was some under-reported bath-salts-esque "kids these days" drug craze which I had somehow never heard of quickly revealed that Donald Ray Pollock actually knew that guy who notoriously huffed the Bactine that one time. I felt that there was too many stories and some of them could have been made longer. The author worked in a paper mill for decades, so you know he's the real deal. This was years ago, back when the outdoor movie experience was still a big deal in southern Ohio.Godzilla was playing, along with some sorry-ass flying saucer movie that showed how pie pans could take over the world.

I'll put it on my all-time faves list. Some people I've talked with about this book have suggested it's too brutal for them to read in long stretches but I found that Pollack's bleak narratives were often spiced up with enough strange details aYep. But, at the risk of sounding like a cliche, the main character in all the stories is the town itself, acting as the stories' sort-of-antagonist, placing an almost mystical hold on its inhabitants. We’d love your help. Come, ye gentrified reading public, and marvel at the escapades of the proud, wayward savages of the impoverished Midwest! Knockemstiff book. Instead, due to the global pandemic, the Brooklyn-based auth...Knockemstiff, Ohio, ist ein tristes Kaff in der weiten Leere des Mittleren Westens. Hier trifft man auf Außenseiter, die hin- und hergerissen sind zwischen Sehnsucht und verlorener Hoffnung, zwischen Aufbegehren und sinnloser Gewalt. Donald Ray seems to be working on a much higher, much riskier level than any other new writer out there. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Read 978 reviews from the world's largest community for readers.


These people are tormented with bad decisions and Pollock is very descriptive when it comes to their failures.

I'll put it on my all-time faves list. But every time she gagged on that wiener, the ropy muscles in the back of my old man’s neck twisted a little tighter, made it seem as if his head was going to pop off any second.My older sister, Jeanette, had used her head and played sick all day, then talked them into letting her stay at a neighbor’s house. Just that morning, I’d heard my mother get on the phone and rag to her sister, the one that lived in town.