Review of Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

Donald Ray Pollock's book of short stories takes place in Knockemstiff, Ohio, in the southern part of the state. It's not too far distance-wise from where I grew up, but is worlds away from that leafy suburban city. There really is a Knockemstiff. Pollock grew up there and still lives in Ohio.

This book is about the people who live in Knockemstiff, an assortment of oddballs who exhibit the full range of human emotions. Some love living in "the holler" as Pollock calls it, while others can't think of anything else other than escaping from it. Knockemstiff itself seemed like a recurrent character. The city, if it can even be called that, has its own quirks and issues. The language is anything but delicate, but that's what makes the stories ring true and what makes them utterly readable.

One of my favorite stories in the collection, "Real Life," is about a young boy and the not-so-great lessons his somewhat violent father teaches him. Another of my favorites is "Discipline," about a road trip to West Virginia to get steroids.

Here's an excerpt from "I Start Over:"
Take me, for example, Big Bernie Givens. I'm fifty-six years old and sloppy fat and stuck in southern Ohio like the smile on a dead clown's ass. My wife shudders every time I mention the sex act. My grown son eats the dead stuff that collects on windowsills. I must watch that damn commercial twenty times a day. I dream about it at night, about starting over. I wake up with that background music knocking holes in my heart. Like I said, it's bullshit.

Just One Pink gives Knockemstiff a 9.