To them, this is life, and we, as readers, are just catching snapshots of the endless cavalcade of setbacks, heartaches and generational misfortune that make up the detritus of their existence. His characters, beyond a few passing thoughts, rarely reflect upon the disconsolate nature of their existence. What makes this work so powerful is that Pollock completely eschews melodrama. However, despite the unpleasantness, this is just wonderful.

The setting, the people, the stories described by Pollock are so depressed, so downtrodden, and so hopelessly trapped in a cycle of economic hardship and misery that reading this can truly mess with your wellbeing. Seriously, Knockemstiff is unrelentingly grim. This is terrific stuff.but, ho doggie, can this man write himself into your happy zone and shit bleak all over it. This is my first experience with Donald Ray Pollock experience, and I'm already a devout admirer of his talent as a storyteller. If you're given the choice between living in Knockemstiff, Ohio, or having your naughty bits gnawed to shreds by a ravenous honey badger… Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place.

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. 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. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. 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.

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. 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.

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock