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Product Description
Michael Guinzburg
"KNOCKEMSTIFF by Donald Ray Pollock is the best book I have ever read. Transcendant. This is real literature. It will be read for centuries. The straight goods. Masterful writing. This is the America they don't let you see on television. The dignity of the characters will make you weep for humankind."
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Arena
`a series of tableaux which make Vernon God Little seem like The Waltons.'
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the best collection of short fiction I've read in 2011 so far. The book's spell is hard to account for. The terrain is Knockemstiff, Ohio, and a million miles away from anything Sherwood Anderson ever imagined. The characters are largely druggies and losers. Haven't we read this before, in Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, Denis Johnson?
But here's the thing. Like all the above, Donald Ray Pollock can write. Some of his sentences are so sharp they could almost leave you with shallow cuts. (See the story 'Bactine', which rapidly became my favourite in the collection.) The dialogue is crisp, to the point, authentic; no story idles, and the characters compel further reading. The guy knows his terrain, has seen it, lived with it, and compressed it artfully.
You just can't fake this kind of thing. It's surprising Pollock hasn't been writing longer. In fact, he's a former paper mill worker in his fifties: this is his first book. You'd better believe I'll be checking out his first novel The Devil All the Time without delay.
But here's the thing. Like all the above, Donald Ray Pollock can write. Some of his sentences are so sharp they could almost leave you with shallow cuts. (See the story 'Bactine', which rapidly became my favourite in the collection.) The dialogue is crisp, to the point, authentic; no story idles, and the characters compel further reading. The guy knows his terrain, has seen it, lived with it, and compressed it artfully.
You just can't fake this kind of thing. It's surprising Pollock hasn't been writing longer. In fact, he's a former paper mill worker in his fifties: this is his first book. You'd better believe I'll be checking out his first novel The Devil All the Time without delay.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When people talk about Knockemstiff, they often use the word, "gritty." The word kind of starts to lose its meaning. The stories in Knockemstiff are intense, that's for sure. There were a couple of spots in some of the stories where I had to put the book down for a minute and look away from the page. Rough things happen to the characters and the characters sometimes do horrible things. But, here's what's best about the collection: The compassion for these characters with which Pollock writes. He's able to take the "gritty" things that happen, the abandonments, the empty highs, the violence, etc. and use them to leave the reader with a sense of heartbreak and a sense of connection. That might sound funny. "Why would I want to feel connected to violence?" That's the risk of this read. To pick it up means you have to be willing to acknowledge that a couple of Bactine addicts, for example, might trigger your sense of empathy. Pollock writes in a stark, unapologetic, conversational style, which helps pique that sense of compassion and bring about the sense of connection in the reader. He's not looking down on Knockemstiff from a helicopter. Instead, he's looking at it from the seat of a beat up Chevy parked at the drive-in. I'd call it "immersion fiction," if I can make up a term.
Anyway, Knockemstiff is profound collection that is definitely worth picking up and reading. That's another thing, by the way. You won't have to pick it up too many times. The stories are quite gripping. You'll be through with it pretty quick.
Anyway, Knockemstiff is profound collection that is definitely worth picking up and reading. That's another thing, by the way. You won't have to pick it up too many times. The stories are quite gripping. You'll be through with it pretty quick.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Think of that moment at the end of Kes when Billy realises that all his dreams have been crushed and he's doomed to work in the pit like his brother and father before him. That's the overarching feeling you get from this book - hopelessness, dreams unfulfilled, the cruelty of being doomed to be always "where you're from."
The stories are powerful, beautiful, visceral and tragic. It's some of the best short fiction I've ever read and it paints a portrait of backwater america that's so tangible it almost makes me nostalgic for it. From the father proud of his son's first fight, to the kid trying to dodge the draft by luring his pursuers into a snake pit, to the tale of love lost at the petrol pumps as yet another local leaves for the big city, the stories are by turns frightening, disturbing, tragic, hopeless and poignant.
Donald Ray Pollock claims to be a former resident of the real town of Knockemstiff and whilst none of the stories are actually based in fact, he's used his experience well to cast them in a believable reality of their own.
This is a very very well-written book and it will reward you.
The stories are powerful, beautiful, visceral and tragic. It's some of the best short fiction I've ever read and it paints a portrait of backwater america that's so tangible it almost makes me nostalgic for it. From the father proud of his son's first fight, to the kid trying to dodge the draft by luring his pursuers into a snake pit, to the tale of love lost at the petrol pumps as yet another local leaves for the big city, the stories are by turns frightening, disturbing, tragic, hopeless and poignant.
Donald Ray Pollock claims to be a former resident of the real town of Knockemstiff and whilst none of the stories are actually based in fact, he's used his experience well to cast them in a believable reality of their own.
This is a very very well-written book and it will reward you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
effecting and wonderful
This was my first taste of Pollock.It wont be my last. A collection of short stories that are in turns bitter and bleak, never flinching away from the nasty underbelly of this... Read more
Published 8 months ago by vi
another great book by Donald Pollock
This was a great read, I have only recently stumbled upon Donald Ray pollock when in America I was looking for a book to read on the plane home and bought his other book The Devil... Read more
Published 8 months ago by bexley
Awesome collection - not for the faint hearted
Well, this one can really knock the wind out of you. Heartbreaking short stories spanning decades with some recurring characters. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. Gareth Price
America's Lumpenproletariat ...
Donald Ray Pollock has written a truly remarkable collection of stories. They are an unflinching look at the American underclass. Read more
Published 17 months ago by John P. Jones III
Knocks the stuffing out of you - not in a good way.
While the other reviewers make no bones about the fact that this is a deeply disturbing book, they seem to have a stronger stomach than me. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2009 by Barmee
A Fantastic Read - loved it!
Utterly brilliant. I couldn't put it down and really was left wanting more. It was at times uncomfortable reading, but always brilliant.
Published on 8 Sep 2008 by H. Greenan
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