Reviews

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

lisawhelpley's review against another edition

5.0

A very interesting read. These characters tie together at times. Stories are so original. Read it!

chillcox15's review against another edition

4.0

I read this and Crimes in Southern Indiana, by Frank Bill, in very close vicinity, and they cover much of the same ground -- the dirty, depressing, and devious lives of people who situate themselves in a particular geographic area, an area that the author himself grew up in. In as much, I cannot help but compare the two. I found myself liking this book a little more than Bill's, if for the fact that I felt some of these stories were a little more varied than those in Crimes in Southern Indiana, which I sometimes found to be repetitive. This book got repetitive at points, too (Its most major weakness), where some of the protagonists (drug-addled toothless 20-something hicks) and situations (a high occurrence of hidden or devious homosexuality) appeared a little too often, making some of the stories blend together indistinguishably. That said, I think the area where Donald Ray Pollock really shines is in knowing how absurd to make his stories. They are bleakly realist, after all, but he goes a little bit farther in the predicaments of the characters than Frank Bill does (who often relies on balls-to-the-wall blood-soaked violence to jar his readers into fiction); I particularly enjoyed the body-building story Discipline, which didn't really use the same archetypes the other stories did, as an example of the essential weirdness of the goings-ons in Knockemstiff. Other than that, I found a lot of Pollack's characters to be placed well in the spectrum of sympathetic protagonists to not-so-very-sympathetic; their actions were at times despicable, but he knew where to put enough inner monologues to get his readers to at least understand what might be going on with them. Overall, I would recommend this to the dirty-slice-of-Americana crowd.

nal1031's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

narveya's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest

totemofundrying's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ttbishop's review against another edition

3.0

Some really dark dark stuff--reading it sorta made me ill. I admit to skimming some.

sxochi's review against another edition

dark funny sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

mpierson's review against another edition

4.0

4 stars for imagination and literary excellence. However, this wasn't my type of book. Otherwise, I might have given it a 5 star rating.

cal_stephanides's review against another edition

4.0

A collection of short stories that can be both disturbing and fascinating at the same time. The characters all live in a small Ohio town called Knockemstiff. The book includes a map of the depressed town to help put the activities of the characters in perspective. Not for the faint of heart, but it will make you fall in love with the short story concept if you aren't already.

camillajill's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0