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A review by pogseu
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
5.0
A brilliant collection of interconnected stories, beautifully written, spanning several decades in and around the town of Knockemstiff, Ohio. As the author, Donald Ray Pollock, points out in his Acknowledgments, Knockemstiff is a real place, where he grew up, but all characters are fictional.
I loved the name of the place. In the third story, with the eponymous title of Knockemstiff, the narrator works in the only shop / petrol station in Knockemstiff. He meets a Californian couple who are travelling all over the US, so that the woman, who is a photographer, can take photos of signs and people in the poor parts of the country. The man says, “ it’s hard to believe there’s people that poor in this country. Living in the richest nation in the world.”
The couple asks our narrator why the town is called Knockemstiff, and I loved this bit:
“Why the hell do they call it Knockemstiff?“ He asks. “Seems like a pretty rough name for a place this quiet.“
I sigh and reach in my pocket for a cigarette, but I’ve left my pack inside. I’ve probably been asked that question 30 or 40 times since I started working for Maude but I’m no storyteller. And the take of how Knockemstiff got its name sounds stupid, even when the old-timers get loaded and tell it. But these people have come clear from California, and the man is expecting some kind of answer. “Not much of a story,“ I say. “Supposedly these two women got in a fight over a man up there in front of the church. One was the wife and the other was the girlfriend. The preacher heard one of them swear she was going to knock the other one stiff.” I shrug and look at the man. “I guess the place hadn’t been named yet. That all happened before I was born.“
The stories focus on ‘hillbillies’, poor people, white trash. The author tackles a wide range of issues through his stories, from addiction to domestic violence, via incest and steroid abuse.
We see characters with pretty warped morals throughout, and how they deal with hardships.
I was impressed by how well the author managed to build the atmosphere of place in each new story and transport me each time in a new environment, with a strong sense of how it would look, how it would smell. I found his descriptions really spot on when it came to capturing grime and smells (of rotten breath or feet, for instance)
There’s sadly little hope, but there is still some hope for some of the characters. And I loved how kind the author was towards his character, if that makes sense. I felt he could empathise with them, without condemning them for being dirt-poor, or for making poor life choices.
There’s a very handy map of Knockemstiff at the start of the book. I spent a lot of time with it, and really loved how, despite the fact that the book spans generations of Knockemstiff inhabitants, most if not all of the characters in the book were connected in one way or another. Not everyone was connected to everyone else, but obviously everyone knows, or knows of everyone else. And I liked getting the different points of view and reading about what happened to such and such who was perceived in a completely different way by a character whose story I had read earlier on. This collection of stories would really benefit from a second read.
All in all, I thought this was a brilliant collection of stories. A true gem. I will keep this book close, and recommend it to everyone I know, because I believe this book should be read by everyone, whatever their tastes in books.
And I will definitely come back to it for—multiple—rereads.
I loved the name of the place. In the third story, with the eponymous title of Knockemstiff, the narrator works in the only shop / petrol station in Knockemstiff. He meets a Californian couple who are travelling all over the US, so that the woman, who is a photographer, can take photos of signs and people in the poor parts of the country. The man says, “ it’s hard to believe there’s people that poor in this country. Living in the richest nation in the world.”
The couple asks our narrator why the town is called Knockemstiff, and I loved this bit:
“Why the hell do they call it Knockemstiff?“ He asks. “Seems like a pretty rough name for a place this quiet.“
I sigh and reach in my pocket for a cigarette, but I’ve left my pack inside. I’ve probably been asked that question 30 or 40 times since I started working for Maude but I’m no storyteller. And the take of how Knockemstiff got its name sounds stupid, even when the old-timers get loaded and tell it. But these people have come clear from California, and the man is expecting some kind of answer. “Not much of a story,“ I say. “Supposedly these two women got in a fight over a man up there in front of the church. One was the wife and the other was the girlfriend. The preacher heard one of them swear she was going to knock the other one stiff.” I shrug and look at the man. “I guess the place hadn’t been named yet. That all happened before I was born.“
The stories focus on ‘hillbillies’, poor people, white trash. The author tackles a wide range of issues through his stories, from addiction to domestic violence, via incest and steroid abuse.
We see characters with pretty warped morals throughout, and how they deal with hardships.
I was impressed by how well the author managed to build the atmosphere of place in each new story and transport me each time in a new environment, with a strong sense of how it would look, how it would smell. I found his descriptions really spot on when it came to capturing grime and smells (of rotten breath or feet, for instance)
There’s sadly little hope, but there is still some hope for some of the characters. And I loved how kind the author was towards his character, if that makes sense. I felt he could empathise with them, without condemning them for being dirt-poor, or for making poor life choices.
There’s a very handy map of Knockemstiff at the start of the book. I spent a lot of time with it, and really loved how, despite the fact that the book spans generations of Knockemstiff inhabitants, most if not all of the characters in the book were connected in one way or another. Not everyone was connected to everyone else, but obviously everyone knows, or knows of everyone else. And I liked getting the different points of view and reading about what happened to such and such who was perceived in a completely different way by a character whose story I had read earlier on. This collection of stories would really benefit from a second read.
All in all, I thought this was a brilliant collection of stories. A true gem. I will keep this book close, and recommend it to everyone I know, because I believe this book should be read by everyone, whatever their tastes in books.
And I will definitely come back to it for—multiple—rereads.